United We Stand
by LizzeXX
Summary: Steve/OC - Being displaced in time isn't easy, but luckily for Steve Rogers, his partner and love, Olivia Williams, Major Britannia, survived the Valkyrie crash with him. When a new threat to Earth arises and their assistance in battle is requested once more, they must learn how to be part of, and trust in, a new team to save the world. Second in the Medic Examinations series.
1. Brave New World

A/N: Hello Everyone! :) This is my first Captain America series and the **second story** in my Medic Examinations series. The first story (And All Her Paths Were Peace) is listed under the CAPTAIN AMERICA section of this site while this story, United We Stand, is listed under the Avengers as it follows the sequence of movies in the Captain America series. This is a Steve/OC story, featuring my OC Olivia Williams, and will follow mostly Steve and Olivia as they go through the movie with a few original scenes thrown in. This story will be about 10 chapters long and, as best I can manage, updated daily :)

For a reference, I picture Olivia to look something like Alison Lohman with strawberry blonde hair that leans more towards blonde. She is pale, with brown eyes, and short hair :) As we go on we'll get more of a sense of her style and her superhero uniform ;)

I hope you enjoy :)

~8~ is a scene break

Disclaimer...I don't own Captain America, the Avengers, or things from the movie/comic, just my OC and some original aspects...or else there'd be more female Avengers ;)

~8~

Brave New World

It had been…an interesting last few months, or at least that was how Olivia tried her best to look at everything that had happened to her and Steve recently. It was something she had always done, especially in hospitals and times she was bedridden. She was always honest with the doctors and nurses about how she felt, but with everyone else, including herself, she tried very hard to stay positive. She never wanted other people to feel bad just because she was feeling bad. Perhaps that was where her words to Steve about not hurting others due to the hurt you felt had come from so long ago.

She knew she felt terribly about this entire situation, she knew Steve felt just as bad. They had had a very long talk about all of it. The SHIELD organization that Director Fury worked with had given them a small cabin to utilize for as long as they needed to. It was, as Fury had described, a way for them to acclimate themselves to life in the present. It had the basics of new technology installed and one of the SHIELD agents, a lovely woman named Maria, had helped teach them how to use some of the newer tech. But there was much they still didn't know.

There were new devices, new music and movies, new technology. There were new laws and restrictions, new medicines and rules and regulations. There wasn't much for the two of them to do outside of this SHIELD organization that had found them and revived them. Olivia hadn't had official training or education in medicine before the War, and Steve had spent most of his time being a soldier. But there were no wars to be fought right now, none that SHIELD would let them take part in. According to them, the two of them were the only remaining results of Dr. Erskine's experiments, something they were still trying to recreate and crack to this day. They were too rare and too important to utilize in anything less than the most extreme of circumstances. The SSR that had given them the chance to be, had eventually grown to become SHIELD and, technically, they were still on the payroll so to speak. But Fury had reassured them that SHIELD took care of their own, and right now they needed this time to themselves.

He was right, she could admit. It had been a hard blow to realize everything they'd ever known was torn away from them. But they had still had each other and they'd needed that time to remember that fact, to just BE with each other without the pressure of war around them. They needed the peace and the quiet. Their last memory had been crashing that plane, and the nightmares that followed, the memories of the war itself, the battles against HYDRA, the wounded on the front lines? They were in no condition to function in society just then.

Director Fury had seemed to understand that. It seemed many people now had a better understanding of the horrors of war and the need to recuperate from it. He had set them up in the cabin to give them time alone. Olivia had done her best to try and help them both heal, to keep Steve positive when the memories became too much. When he began to think of sad times, she'd remind him of funny stories. When he missed Bucky, she would ask him to talk about the man, knowing he needed and wanted to talk but didn't know how to start. When he had nightmares, she'd be right there to make him some warm milk to soothe him. She liked to think she succeeded whenever he smiled or laughed.

It hadn't been just her efforts though, Steve had been there through every nightmare she had had too, holding her, wiping tears away, making breakfast for her. It had become something of a routine, she'd noticed, Steve seemed to love making breakfast, while she loved making dinner, lunch they did together. He would hold her hand and go on walks with her, wind his arm around her when they sat beside each other. The cabin had been a place of solace.

But they weren't in that cabin any longer.

As much as they might want to stay there, where they could pretend, to an extent, that it was still the 1940s, that it was just them, it wasn't. Neither of them were the sort to hide away, and so they'd contacted Director Fury to ask if they might return to New York, if they might be able to work out a way to find work and an apartment and…

Fury had refused. To let them work, that is, to find a menial job when they were both so much more than that. Their skills would be better used at SHIELD, when they were ready to rejoin. He had claimed that, after everything they had done for their countries, for SHIELD itself, they were owed a roof over their head, no expenses spared. They had come across a modest apartment that suited them both, never ones to live in excess, the rationing system had seen to that. Fury had offered a better one, but the apartment they found was quaint and THEM. Fury still insisted on setting them up with everything they might need.

There were boxes everywhere right now, things that Fury deemed necessary with the express instruction that anything they needed would be provided for them. There was a TV set up, Fury had given them some documents and files, some footage as well, of their time in the War, thinking they might want to know what came after. They knew they won, people around there weren't speaking German after all. But there was so much they didn't know about everything they'd left behind.

Olivia made her way over to Steve as he sat before the TV, watching some old footage of their time as Captain America and Major Britannia. She knelt down beside him, winding one arm around his shoulders as she watched on with him, smiling softly in nostalgia at the war footage, of them with the Commandos and Bucky, even some clips of Peggy too.

"They're all gone," Steve murmured, reaching out to shut the TV off, picking up a stack of files that had been resting before him. He shifted through them, all the Commandos, each with a red label reading 'deceased' stamped on it. Bucky's had a note that he had been killed in action, the only one of the Commandos, which Olivia supposed was the smallest comfort, that none of the other men had died in battle without them there to protect them, "Except one."

Peggy's file, Steve handed it to her, detailing about Peggy Carter, retired/inactive, but still alive. Complete with an address and a phone number at the bottom.

"I'm with you," Steve reached out to take her hand when she stared at the file without speaking, "Whatever you want."

He said it partly because he knew, during those few months in the cabin, she had struggled with what happened in regards to the time away from Peggy. She had confessed to him, after a nightmare or two, that she felt like it was her fault, that so much time had passed without her able to be there for the woman. They had both thought they were going to die in that crash, there was no way to know they'd have survived it. The nightmares had convinced Olivia that Peggy would hate her for leaving and it had taken some doing for him to convince her otherwise. But even now, she was hesitating.

Olivia smiled at him softly, tears in her eyes as she fiddled with the end of the necklace he had given her so long ago, "I can't be that selfish…"

Steve shook his head, a smile of his own on his face, "You could never be."

"Why should I have my best mate when you can't have yours?" she whispered, her voice breaking.

Steve moved his hand to her cheek, gently tugging her closer to place a kiss to her forehead. It was moments like these where he marveled at his best girl and considered himself the luckiest guy in the world that she was HIS. Olivia knew, better than anyone, how important Bucky had been to him, how much like brothers they'd been than just friends. She knew the devastation he'd felt at losing Bucky, and she was willing to sacrifice seeing her own best friend, her sister, because it wasn't fair to him.

She didn't want to cause him pain by still being able to see her friend when he couldn't see his.

But she seemed to forget sometimes...he didn't ever want to cause her pain either, and keeping her from seeing Peggy again would hurt her deeply.

"Why do you think I could ever let you be sad, when I can help it?" he countered lightly, stroking a tear away from her cheek with his thumb.

Olivia smiled at him, understanding, "I can't call her," she told him, "She'd never forgive me for just phoning."

"Then we'll go see her," he promised, "As soon as everything's settled here, we'll go say hello, and thank her for everything she's done while we were sleeping."

"Oh she's never going to let me live that down," Olivia joked, giving a watery laugh, "I always slept so much because of the medications, she teased me endlessly for it."

Steve chuckled, "I can imagine. But it wasn't your fault," he reminded her seriously, something they had both taken to doing.

"Nor was it yours," she agreed.

Steve looked down at the last two files resting there, Howard Stark marked deceased, but with a file below it of his son, Tony Stark, who was an active member of SHIELD, following in his father's footsteps.

Steve took a breath and looked over at Olivia, reaching out to take the file from her and place it with the rest, "One thing Peggy would never let ME live down," he continued, "Is if I don't get rid of those tears in your eyes."

With that, he stood, holding out a hand to help her up, before turning to lower a needle onto a record player, earning a touched look from Olivia when she heard the song that was playing. The same one that had been playing in that bar so long ago, the one they'd nearly had their first dance to when it had ended before they could, a song that had steadily become theirs whenever they heard it. She smiled softly at him as he took her hand once more, pressing a kiss to the knuckles on her left hand before tugging her closer, winding his arms around her as they gently swayed to the melody.

~8~

Olivia smiled at Steve as they sat at a table in a small cafe later that day. They had walked down a busy street in the middle of New York, her holding Steve's right hand with her left, her right hand gently gripping his right arm as they went. They passed a cell phone stand, a man selling newspapers, cars on display through glass windows, just something they had taken to doing. They always tried to go for a walk at some point during the day, a way to get fresh air, to take in the world around them, to try and get used to all the changes. The way that she and Steve looked at all of these new inventions everywhere, with a sense of curiosity and awe, and a little bit of confusion, was probably the same way many people who saw she and Steve looked at them.

Steve was dressed in tan colored pants, with a button up shirt, and an old brown leather jacket on. While she was wearing a high-waisted blue skirt that went a little past her knees, black flats, and a white blouse with blue polka dots on it. It was just a little chilly out, so she had a blue sweater draped over her shoulders as they went. She was sure they both looked as though they had stepped out of the 1940s compared to the more modern garb everyone else was wearing. But that would certainly take some getting used to, seeing all these women wearing trousers and other clothing she wasn't used to seeing. She liked _their_ style, as outdated as it might be, it was a comfort to both of them, something that they could still keep true to no matter how much things changed. They were both very simple people and their styles reflected that.

Cafes were eateries they frequented, that and small delis. Very simple places to eat. They were still getting used to just how crowded everything was, so they tended to avoid the larger, more popular areas, like restaurants. Quaint little cafes, some movie theaters, museums as well, were very helpful for them with getting used to all the changes little by little.

Olivia smiled gently, the conversation between her and Steve having tapered off a short while ago, his attention drifting up above her head to something she couldn't see. She leaned forward to look at what he was doodling on the side of a paper, to see he was sketching the architecture behind her. A stone wall with a clock in it and carvings, with a high skyscraper behind it.

"That's wonderful," Olivia murmured.

Steve seemed to realize what he had been doing, and quickly shook his head, trying to move paper away from her sight, "Just a doodle..."

"Doesn't mean it can't be wonderful," Olivia reached out to take the paper from him, "I'm keeping this one, too."

Steve let out a chuckle at that, thinking back to the first sketch Olivia had ever seen him do, a monkey performing in his Captain America uniform. He'd thought someone had thrown it out when he had gotten back from rescuing the 107th with Olivia. It hadn't been until he had interrupted a conversation she was having Bucky, while she had been returned to the Commandos, of his friend telling her about his artistic efforts, that he realized Olivia had taken it instead and kept it. It wasn't garbage to her, it was something to smile at.

That was something both he and Olivia still struggled with, coming to terms with the fact that they were not like how they had been before the serum and Dr. Erskine's experiment. He knew he still struggled with the feeling of not being good enough, of not being the right fit or person for a job, of not really having anything else to offer someone but his heart and mind. He looked at a doodle and he saw it as just a doodle, nothing worth paying any attention to. Because he himself had never been someone others paid attention to.

But, just like before he took part in the experiment, Olivia saw things in him others didn't. She looked at a doodle he made and she saw talent, she saw something worth praising, something worth keeping and treasuring. And he knew he looked at her the exact same way, she was something he would keep and treasure to the end of his days. He'd promised her that.

"Waiting on the big guy?" a voice spoke beside them, a waitress with blonde hair stepping up with a coffee pot in one hand, a cup in the other.

"Ma'am?" Steve looked up at her.

"Iron Man," she answered, "A lot of people eat here just to see him fly by."

"Have we been here long?" Olivia frowned as Steve looked at a watch on his wrist, they didn't realize they'd been sitting there for a few hours now, just enjoying the sunshine and each other's company.

"Oh, no, table's yours as long as you like," the woman smiled at them, reaching out to pour Steve another coffee, and placed the small cup of hot water with a teabag next to it for Olivia down before the woman, remembering their order, "Nobody's waiting on it," her tone clearly implied that they really _could_ stay there as long as they wanted, "We've also got free wireless," she told them as she began to walk away to tend to another table.

Steve frowned at that, "Radio?" he had to ask, not having seen a radio anywhere near their table.

"Ask for her number, you moron," an old man grumbled from the table behind them.

Steve chuckled, "I don't think my best girl would appreciate that much."

"No, she would not," Olivia teased back with a gentle smile, knowing Steve would never do that.

Steve just reached out and took her left hand across the table, letting his thumb play against her fingers and letting himself enjoy the sight of her smiling at him.

Before he even realized he was doing it, he'd begun doodling another picture of just that sight, beaming at the blush that grew across her cheeks when she realized he had moved on to sketching her now, but didn't tell him to stop.

~8~

Something Olivia tried to do everyday, was find one good thing, one new thing, something that had changed since the 1940s and had gotten better. It was something her mother had encouraged her to do the first few times she had fallen ill. It was all too easy for people to fall into melancholy and sorrow, when all they could do was fixate on how terrible things were, when they looked at everything they had lost or couldn't do. So her mother always encouraged her to find at least one thing that was good about her day. Very often the one good thing would be Peggy or Michael coming to visit her, a new book to read, being allowed out of her bed to wander the halls, a picture Peggy drew for her during free time at school, a funny joke that Michael heard.

There hadn't been much need to do it after Dr. Erskine's experiment, things had gotten better for her, she could breathe, she could move, she didn't need her medications anymore, she could go out and have adventures with Peggy. But it was a momentary thing for, especially during the war, when she'd been allowed to participate, during the harder times, it would come back, and Dr. Erskine's experiment would be a 'one good thing' that had improved things for her. During her time with the Commandos and Steve the list of grown exponentially. The Commandos were quite serious about taking down HYDRA, but they were also good-natured fellows. Conversations with Bucky, time spent with Steve, gathering around a fire at night, visits from Peggy, and listening to the men share stories, were just a few good things.

Even when she hadn't been aware that she was doing it, every day she found at least one thing, one positive thing about the day. When she woke up in that false hospital room, when she knew something was very wrong about the entire situation, her one good thing was Steve. Steve was alive, Steve was with her, they were together. And, once the shock of the time difference had passed, once she had found out that Peggy was still alive, that had become her good thing for a month. That Peggy had found a husband to love, had children, and a career, and adventures, she has lived a full life, lived a good life. That would be a happy thing to fall back on no matter the circumstances.

The Allies had won, Hitler and HYDRA had been defeated, people were safe and free, those were some of the major ones she thought of the first few days. But after, she decided she should focus on some of the things about the current time. She needed to find a way to be happy in 2011, and then 2012.

Every night before she and Steve would go to bed, he would ask her what her one good thing was for the day and every day it was new and different. She felt, tonight, her one good thing would be transportation. There were so many more ways to get around now than there had been. Or that's how it felt to her. She and Steve had taken a train, to a little gym in Brooklyn, one that Steve was familiar with, one he was quite pleased to see we still standing even 70 years later.

They came there once before, when they were seeing if it was still there, but they were there that night for a different reason. She had noticed that she and Steve processed what was happening differently while they had been in the cabin. She thrived in peace and quiet, a result of being in the hospital so often, being bedridden, not being allowed to do much of anything. That was where she felt most at peace and calm. But Steve had always been more of an active person than she had, always moving, always doing something, always trying to prove himself. He didn't do quite so well with peace and quiet, he needed something to do, he always seemed to feel better after he had gone for a run or done some sort of exercise. She would often join him, she could do with some exercise herself, both of them making sure that they had worked out any lingering kinks from their time on the ice, to make sure they were both at tip top shape. But also...neither of them could seem to stand being apart for very long.

When they were alone, it felt like they were truly _alone._ When they would look over their shoulder to say something to each other and not see them there, there was always that brief flash of fear that they had imagined everything, that they were the only survivor of the crash. That the other was dead. They always preferred being together after the first few times that happened, she would exercise with him and he would rest with her after.

They'd had a very calm day, after unpacking some of their boxes and setting up some of the things in their apartment, now it was time for Steve to have his own form of therapy.

They were standing in the gym right now, Steve working out some of his lingering frustration of the situation. Olivia stood behind a punching bag, holding it still and giving more support to it while Steve took his turn punching at it. They had learned quite quickly that he could punch straight through a punching bag and break it if it wasn't otherwise supported. They didn't want to cause problems for the gym or cost it any extra expense to replace the bag.

It was best for her to be there, behind the punching bag, she was the only one he trusted to do that, to stand there and help hold it steady as the last time a SHIELD agent had tried, he and the bag had gone flying across the room. But also, Steve could quite easily get lost in his thoughts when he was going about his exercise routines. And, often, his thoughts would turn to the darker moments of the war, the fighting, the experiments, the enemy. He could sometimes lose himself and punch too hard or push himself too much, and Olivia always hated to see him so in pain..

Having her there served as a reminder to him that they had both survived the war, that she was there, that he was not alone, that's some good had come out of it. That all the fighting, dodging blasts and gunfire, all the destruction the Tesseract created with its weapons, crashing the Valkyrie, the friends they lost, the memories of Red Skull, all of the bad, everything they sacrificed, had not been for nothing. They survived for a reason, whether it was fate or a result of Dr. Erskine's experiment, they were both there, they were both together, and if they could do as much as they had in the past, there must be _something_ more they could do for the present and future.

Olivia watched carefully as Steve closed his eyes, pummeling the bag, and she could tell the memories were threatening to overwhelm him. So she timed herself quickly and, with his next punch, she reached out and grabbed his wrist, stilling the hit with a single touch. Instantly Steve's eyes snapped open and saw her own, her thumb stroking over his pulse point, and she offered him a gentle smile, soft and understanding. He let out a huffing breath, panting just slightly from the exertion, before turning his hand to catch her own, giving it a squeeze and giving her a small smile in thanks for having his back.

"Trouble sleeping?" the voice of Director Fury called out as the man entered the room.

It was a…reasonable question to ask, Olivia agreed when she noticed it was 2 in the morning according to the clock on the wall, the gym had upgraded to later hours over the decades, and neither of them had noticed. While the nightmares had gotten better, it was still hard for either of them to rest at times.

Steve snorted at that, stepping away from the punching bag, signaling he was finished with that particular exercise, "We slept for 70 years, sir. I think we've had our fill."

"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world."

"We're working on it," Olivia murmured, focusing on Steve's hands as she unwrapped the tape he bound himself in, gently massaging his hands and checking for any bruises or cuts for her to tend to, "Slowly but surely will always win the race."

Steve nodded in understanding, "We went under, the world was at war. We wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."

"We've made some mistakes along the way," Fury could admit, "Some very recently."

"Has something happened?" Olivia asked at the same time that Steve questioned, "You here with a mission, sir?" the two sharing a small smile at the action.

"Something most certainly has," Fury answered them, "And yes I am."

Steve frowned at him, "Trying to get us back in the world?"

Fury shook his head, "Trying to save it."

Steve and Olivia looked at each other for that, Fury had been one of the staunchest supporters of giving them time to recover before even thinking about asking them to come back to SHIELD. For him to come to them now, when they had only _just_ returned to New York...it had to be serious. The man knew that something like that would be enough to get them back in the field, if the world was at stake, yet he hadn't ever pushed them or used that against them.

Until now.

Olivia felt herself smile when she saw Steve looking to her for her decision. In a very technical sense, she outranked him, so a decision like this, whether to accept a mission or not, _would_ fall to her. But she also knew that he was also looking to her because he wanted to make sure this was something she would want to do, that she would be ok with it. They were a _team_ , now more than ever, one would not go where the other refused, it was the two of them or nothing.

She had to give him a small nod for an answer though, neither of them had it in them to stand by when the world was at stake. Steve needed more action than just exercising and, if they didn't help, people could get hurt, the medic in her couldn't abide by that.

Steve returned her smile and turned to Fury, serious, but his voice equally cautious, "What's the situation?"

It wasn't an agreement to take up arms again, it wasn't them accepting the mission, it was asking what the mission was before they fully decided yes or no.

Fury nodded his acceptance of that, understanding, and handed Olivia a file. It was something both of them appreciated, that the man didn't just assume, because Steve with a man, that he was the one in charge. Olivia was every bit as important and had just as much of a say, more so really.

She carefully opened the file, seeing it was full of information on the Tesseract, the cube that Schmidt had used to power his weapons, which were detailed there as well, more papers on HYDRAs projects.

"HYDRA's secret weapon," Steve identified it.

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you two," Fury informed them, "He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs."

"From what I understand of the world today," Olivia began, squinting as she read file, "You possess every means to create a sustainable energy source, you don't need the Tesseract. Howard should have left it alone..."

"Who took it from you?" Steve frowned deeply, if it fell back into HYDRA's hands, it could mean yet another world war. And with what he and Olivia knew of the weapons that existed now, not even those powered by the Tesseract, it could be _devastating_.

"He's called Loki," Fury stated, "He's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."

"I've seen people drink _iced_ tea, Director," Olivia said, as though such a thing were the greatest injustice she had ever seen in her life.

Steve tried his best to hold back a smile at that, she was very particular about her tea and the temperature it was served at, "At this point, I doubt anything would surprise us."

"Ten bucks says you're wrong," Fury warned, "There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment," the two nodded, and began to make their way for the door, wanting to know everything about the mission before they accepted, "Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"

"Like Liv said, you should have left it in the ocean."

A/N: Woo! We're back! :D I'm actually quite excited for this story, I feel like, here in the modern time, it's such a different world with different expectations and freedoms that women might not have had when Olivia was part of things. I feel like this is going to be the moments that spark Olivia's own quest to really BE a superhero like Steve has been since the start :) And I'm very excited to see her journey, how she balances what she believes in and her own morals with things others expect of heroes, the support and opposition she might get from it and who from :) BIG things planned for this story and for Olivia and Steve :)

I hope the sort of 'shock' for Steve and Olivia was believable, the aftermath of their time in 2011-12. Steve was so solemn and sad and serious, but here he's got someone there who understands and is there for him, like he is Olivia, and I feel like together they'd be able to help keep each other in better spirits and heal a little bit more than we saw from Steve being alone :)

As I mentioned in the last story, AAHPWP, I'll be putting up a poll on my profile shortly with a list of all the suggestions given for pairing names for Olivia and Steve so we can have a vote on what their official pairing name will be :) I think I'll announce it in the last chapter of this story ;)

And, just to end, mostly putting this here because I've promised my sister I would actually tell people it. I made a page called ko-fi, where people can show support of a person by contributing a 'cup of coffee' to them. It's not a real cup of coffee, it's a donation that is roughly the cost of a cup of coffee, or about 3 dollars. The link is up on my profile or on my tumblr's LINKS page if anyone is interested. There's no obligation, requirement, or commitment, it just sort of feels to me like a little 'let's talk about your work over a cup of coffee' ;)

Some notes on reviews...(from the end of AAHPWP)...

Kona's story will be a bit longer. I'm alternating between Thor and Star Trek, so after this story we'll have Cora's Star Trek story, then Winter Soldier for Olivia, and then back to Kona and Loki :) So probably sometime around September for Kona :) Bucky's OC definitely won't be appearing till next year unfortunately :( I actually already have mention of the Medusa Myth in Athena's Truth story, it's not a memory she looks back on fondly :(

I can say Liv will have something to do with Coulson's 'death' in this story, but I won't say what ;)

Thor and Tony are the two I'm excited to see Olivia around also :) Tony because she was friends with his father and it's a little weird to think of Howard's son being fully grown when, months ago (to her) Howard was younger than Tony (I think), And Thor because he's just like this out of place space puppy :) I'm also very much looking forward to her being around Natasha and Hill more too ;)

I always try to balance my OCs with some sort of shortcoming or fear and it's something I've been working on for a while, haven't always managed it, but I try my best and try to learn from each one so I'm very glad that you're enjoying Olivia :) This is really going to be a journey for her to find her own strengths, while still battling her weaknesses, and try to find a balance with what she has to do and what she believes in :)

Understandable, Schmidt was certainly creepy enough to have tried that. I think the only reason he didn't, in this case, is because Olivia could fight back more with her strength from the experiment. In a generic sense of good vs. evil and Olivia being the 'good guy' she'd have found some way to stop him or escape and, when it came down to seeing his plans through with bombing New York or risking taking Olivia with him, he'd probably focus on getting New York with Steve there to come after Olivia.

I can say I might have a Guardians of the Galaxy OC in mind already, but that sounds like a very cool one and I encourage you to write it! :D No one will know your idea for a story or do it justice better than you ;)

I'm torn between being sorry that it made you cry and being really happy that it made you cry, if that makes sense...so I'm just going to say I'm sorry it made you cry, it means a lot to me to know it did though ;)


	2. What Goes Up

What Goes Up

Olivia couldn't help but flush slightly at her position on the quinjet she and Steve were taking to SHIELD's base for this operation. They had agreed, after reading the briefing file left for them in their apartment, to take on this mission. In a way, they already agreed to take it on the moment they found out the Tesseract was involved. They had contacted Fury quite soon after going over the file and talking about it, and had met with a lovely man named Phil Coulson the next morning to accompany them to the new base.

He had provided them with his tablet, which held additional information on the other people being recruited to assist SHIELD on this mission. But he only had one tablet and there were two of them and the seats were not quite close enough to be able to share the tablet. Steve had come up with, what she was sure he would claim was, an ingenious way to get around that.

And that was how Olivia found herself sitting on Steve's lap, his arms around her, while she held the tablet for both of them to view. Phil seemed oddly excited to see such a thing, she had caught the man glancing over at them and fighting a smile from the moment Steve had pulled her down. But he had at least given them the privacy of looking over the files themselves, answering any questions they might have.

Currently the footage playing on the tablet was a video clip of a very large green man smashing his way through the army near what appeared to be a college. From what she understood of the file attached to this clip, it was a being called the Hulk. It was an entity that appeared to live within another man, Dr. Bruce Banner, and only showed itself when the man was injured or angry. After which, it was a nearly unstoppable force that destroyed anything in its path.

"We're about forty minutes out from base, sir," they heard the pilot inform Phil, as the man stood to approach them, likely to tell them the same thing, but they had heard it with their superior hearing.

"So, this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on us?" Steve asked Phil as he approached.

"A lot of people were," he agreed sadly, "You two were the world's first superheroes. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."

Olivia quickly flicked the tablet off as the Hulk roared in fury and smashed a jeep apart, "I don't think he quite managed it," was her polite reply, earning a smile from Phil.

"Not so much. When he's not that thing, though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking..." he trailed off when both Olivia and Steve looked at him questioningly, "He's like a smart person."

"Like Howard?"

Phil nodded, recalling Howard Stark had been a friend of hers, "And his son, just in different fields."

"And these other specialists," Olivia continued, according to the files, there would be one other person besides Dr. Banner and Tony Stark joining them, an assassin, a woman named Natasha Romanoff, "Is there anything not in the file we should know about them? The Black Widow?"

Phil considered it for a moment, before offering, "The only thing you need to know about her is that she's on our side, and one of the SHIELD agents compromised by Loki, was important to her."

Olivia nodded her head slowly at that, "Was he her Steve?"

Phil let out a chuckle when he noticed Steve starting to flush slightly at her phrasing, "Not quite," was all he could say without giving away too much confidential information about Barton, "Speaking of...I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you both, officially that is," he began to gush, "I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping."

"Excuse me?" Steve shook his head at that, slowly standing and maneuvering Olivia to stand with the action, though he appeared to be just a little in front of her, not entirely certain what Phil meant by that remark.

Phil quickly seemed to realize how that came across, "I mean, I was...I was _present_ while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really...it's just a...just a _huge_ honor to have you both on board."

"Right..." Steve nodded, though he eyed Phil with a bit more caution than before, "Well, I hope we're right for the job."

"Oh, you are. _Absolutely_. Uh..." Phil reached out to take the tablet from Olivia, turning it on once more and flipping through other files, intending to show them that they very much were the right people for the task, SHIELD wouldn't have gone through the effort upgrading something for them if they weren't, "We've made some modifications to your uniforms. I had a little design input."

He handed them the tablet once more with the file open, showing them the new designs in mind for Captain America and Major Britannia.

"Aren't the stars and stripes a little...old fashioned?" Steve had to ask when he saw he is very patriotic uniform, one that looked less like combat garb and more like stars and stripes.

"With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned."

"Oh I don't know, I think I might like the new uniform," Olivia offered with a bright smile when she saw the designs for her own uniform, "Well done, Mr. Coulson."

"Phil, please," the man said quickly, with a faint blush at the praise that only served make Steve narrow his eyes slightly.

"Well done, Phil," Olivia corrected, "And, please, call me Liv."

She let out a soft laugh when Steve made a faint groan at her words. She usually reserved 'Liv' as a name only her dearest of friends called her, but the man was clearly someone who was truly just and good, and he had gone through quite a lot of effort, she could tell, in designing her outfit. She was quite sure there were numerous records of exactly what she thought of her old outfit, and it appeared Phil had actually take into account some very specific critiques she had mentioned herself about it. It was the least she could do to offer him that informality.

So she reached out and lightly hit Steve on the chest with the back of her hand in a gesture to stop it.

"It's nothing," Phil flushed more, seeming beside himself that she liked his work.

"It's _wonderful_ ," she insisted.

Phil just beamed.

~8~

"Well it's certainly large," Olivia murmured to Steve as the quinjet landed down on a massive battleship. They had gotten quite a good look at it from the air, it was huge, with two runways, one that appeared to have direct access to a hanger at the end, "But not surprising."

Steve snorted at her words, they had made it into a game ever since they accepted Fury's mission, trying to identify what Fury might think was surprising to them. First with the jet, then the others who were being brought in to assist on this mission, now it was the battleship. It still wasn't as surprising as Fury probably thought it was, they had come from the middle of a war, they had seen things they had never thought they'd ever see, it would take more than a large ship or green man to surprise them.

Phil smiled at them as he led them down a ramp as soon as it was down. There was a ginger woman at the bottom, waiting for them, arms behind her back, her stance was at ease, but also rigid. Olivia recognized her from her hair and the file she'd read, it was Natasha, the Black Widow, probably the one person on this ship most keen to get back the missing SHIELD agent than anyone.

"Agent Romanoff," Phil greeted, before gesturing to the two soldiers that had followed him, "Major Williams and Captain Rogers."

Olivia was quite relieved that Phil had introduced her by her last name instead of the title many others seemed to know her by. Even though neither she nor Steve had gotten a say in what 'superhero name' they would be given, she definitely thought she had drawn the short end of the stick. She could come up with at least five other names that were just as patriotic yet more sensible than the one she had, but it was one many people knew her by, it was one her people had given her, and she didn't have the heart to ask them to stop calling her that. It appeared Phil truly had done his research on them, to introduce her as Major Williams instead of Major Britannia.

"Ma'am?" Steve asked when he noticed an odd expression on Natasha's face.

Natasha glanced between both of them before a small smirk grew on her face as she looked to Olivia, "You outrank him?"

"Technically, yes," Olivia offered, understanding the woman's reaction now.

It seemed like many people knew her and Steve only by their superhero names, Captain America and Major Britannia, and took it to be just that, a name. To hear she actually _was_ classified a Major in the army and that she did actually outrank _Captain America_ , would be a surprise to anyone. Especially considering her role as a medic during the war and how she had often, as a woman, been kept from the front lines while Steve had been battling HYDRA head on. She hasn't had as much of an active role against HYDRA the way Steve had, he was the battles and she took care of the aftermath.

"But we're a team," she continued.

Natasha nodded at that, a look on her face that told Olivia she knew exactly how that felt, to have one of a team outrank the other yet never use that against them, to act as true partners. Perhaps that was what this Agent Barton, for that was what the file called him, was to Natasha.

Maybe Barton was Natasha's Peggy.

"They need you on the Bridge," Natasha told Phil, "Face time."

Phil sighed, glancing at Olivia and Steve, not pleased to have to step away, but it was his duty, "See you there."

Natasha rolled her eyes when Phil departed, having notice his reluctance as well.

"I'm quite glad you're part of this team Mr. Coulson's put together," Olivia offered in the slight awkward silence that followed, "It's wonderful, I'm glad I won't be the only woman here to keep the boys in line."

Natasha smiled at her, "I think we're gonna work together just fine. I mean, if Coulson's willing to let you both out of his sight for more than a minute," she began to lead them towards a railing along the ship, wanting to give them a wider view of the top deck, "There was quite the buzz around here, finding you two in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his trading cards yet?"

"Trading cards?" Steve blinked at that, startled.

"They're vintage, he's very proud."

"That's actually quite precious," Olivia remarked, even when Steve looked a little befuddled by the statement. She nudged him with a teasing smile, "You're his hero."

"Not just him," Natasha smirked, looking at Olivia, "He's got about three cards just for you."

"Me?" Olivia pointed to herself as though she couldn't believe those words. She could believe there were trading cards made for Steve, he really was the face of Dr. Erskine's experiment. She had always been tending the wounded, making sure everyone was safe and looked after.

"Oh yeah," she smirked even more, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say he has a crush on you."

"...ME?" Olivia repeated, honestly not sure if Natasha was teasing her or not.

It was just something unbelievable to her, that someone would actually have an interest in her, let alone a crush. There were some days she still couldn't believe that _Steve_ had taken an interest in her. There were some days she still thought she imagined how he had noticed her. When she thought of herself, she still thought of that girl in the hospital, not the Major from the war. So, in that sense, it just seemed mad that someone would have had a crush on her. Bucky had once insisted that Steve would have noticed her even before the serum, that she was just his type. She couldn't imagine herself being anyone else's type.

"Makes perfect sense to me," Steve smiled at Olivia, but with a teasing look in his own eyes, "The man has impeccable taste...but he's going to be disappointed though, you'll have to let him down very gently..."

Olivia rolled her eyes and punched Steve in the arm playfully as he laughed and rubbed his arm as though it had hurt. It actually had. They couldn't feel many blows dealt by other people, not thanks to the serum, but they were both of equal strength so they could feel each other. Though he had a sneaking suspicion Olivia was a little stronger than he was. She was certainly faster. They didn't hold back with each other, her punch really had hurt. Not badly, but enough to be felt.

Something neither of them saw Natasha notice.

Olivia shook her head and looked back to Natasha, only to frown when she saw something past her shoulder, "Is he alright?"

Natasha looked over to see Dr. Banner behind her, standing in the middle of a crowd of people walking past him, seeming too nervous and hesitant to push past them, but unable to make his way around the steady stream.

"Dr. Banner," Steve approached with Olivia and Natasha, reaching out to shake his hand.

"Oh, yeah," the man returned the gesture, moving to extend the same courtesy to Olivia too, "Hi."

"Olivia," she offered, "And this is Steve."

"Bruce. They told me you'd be coming."

"Word is you can find the cube," Steve remarked.

Bruce scoffed in a somewhat self depreciating way, "Is that the only word on me?"

"No," Olivia said honestly.

"But it's the only word we care about," Steve finished.

Bruce smiled a little at that, "Is that so?"

"I rather prefer getting to know people for themselves rather than what others think," Olivia replied, earning a soft look from Steve. He knew she had been a large factor in him being selected for Dr. Erskine's experiment, she had seen past what others thought of him and got to know him for him.

"Must be strange for you, all of this," Bruce murmured.

"Well, this is actually kind of familiar," Steve shrugged.

"Not to interrupt," Natasha spoke up, "But you may wanna step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe."

Olivia quickly reached out to Steve to steady herself when the base began to shake somewhat, clearly starting up.

"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked, moving closer to the edge to look down at the water.

"Really?" Bruce huffed, "They want ME in a submerged pressurized metal container?"

Just as they reached the edge, they saw four huge lift fans coming above the water, mounted to the side of the ship, and beginning to help it rise into the air.

"Oh, no," Bruce groaned loudly over the noise, "This is MUCH worse!"

"Surprised?" Steve shouted over to Olivia, "Cos I am!"

"Honestly?" she looked at him with a smile, "No."

"No?!"

"Iced tea, Steve! ICED _tea_!"

Steve just lauhged.

~8~

Steve, Bruce, and Olivia followed Natasha through the halls of the base which was steadily rising higher into the air with every step they took. So the opposite of a submarine then. Olivia could admit she understood why Bruce felt this was much worse a place for him to be. From what she knew of his file, the Hulk was unpredictable and the file made it seem like anything could set him off. In a submarine, if anything went wrong and the Hulk went on a rampage, it would be horrible, but only for those in the water. In the air, the fallout of the base being attacked could be even more horrific. If it fell from the sky, it could crash into land and hurt far more people than just them.

She now had the sneaking suspicion that Fury hadn't just asked them to join this mission for their knowledge and experience with the Tesseract, but to help contain and stop the Hulk should he be triggered. A small part of her whispered that she knew Fury had probably asked them for very specific skills they had too. Steve was the true soldier, he had the experience being IN battle and fighting, while she was the Medic, she would be able to help tend to any wounded that might come from an attack.

She shook her head from her thoughts, focusing on the present and the mission as they entered the Bridge. It was quite large, as was the rest of the ship, gleaming and new looking, very high tech with machines and consoles everywhere, multiple agents working at them.

"Gentlemen, Ladies," Fury approached them, smirking when Steve handed over some money, "Five? I bet ten."

"You surprised _Steve_ ," Olivia explained. He had bet ten bucks THEY would be surprised, if only half of them were, then he only got half the money.

"You aren't?" Fury eyed her, putting the money in his pocket.

"Not yet," Olivia patted his shoulder as she passed him to stand beside Steve and look out at the clouds. The base was large and it could fly, but looking out at the view, at the clouds, she had seen such a sight before, on the Valkyrie.

She reached out to take Steve's hand at that, if she was thinking it, he might too.

Fury shook his head at them, moving over to Bruce and offering him a hand to shake as well, "Doctor, thank you for coming."

"Thanks for asking nicely," Bruce hesitantly returned the shake, "So, uh...how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear."

"There's been no new intel about its location?" Olivia called back as she and Steve moved nearer to Natasha to see what she was looking at on a computer, an image of Agent Clint Barton.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet," Phil assured them, "Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

"So no?" Steve asked, his voice a mixture of seriousness and disappointed, the longer the Tesseract was in enemy hands, the worse it was for everyone.

"That's still not gonna find them in time," Natasha expressed her own concern.

"You have to narrow the field," Bruce stated, "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

"How many are there?" Fury asked.

"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition…what?" he trailed off when Steve and Olivia turned to look at him, Steve with something of a wide-eyed expression and Olivia with a smile.

"You are a brilliant man, Bruce," was all Olivia could say, "Try not to forget that, yeah?"

Bruce blinked at that, before realizing she sounded quite proud of him, and smiled when he realized why she'd said it. He had never been or sounded more confident than when he'd been in his element and talking science. Just because the Hulk was hanging over him, didn't mean HE wasn't in control right now and HE was just as useful to SHIELD for his mind.

"At least we could rule out a few places," he finished, "Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

"Agent Romanoff, would you show to his laboratory, please," Fury looked to Natasha who nodded and began to lead him away.

"You're gonna love it, Doc," she told him, "We got all the toys."

"What nice people," Olivia murmured to Steve as they left.

Steve just had to laugh at that, winding his arm around her and shaking his head. Her words about getting to know people never more true. Their files would lead people to believe that Natasha was a cold blooded murderer and Bruce was a monster, yet they were nothing of the sort. Natasha was a woman who clearly cared about this Barton fellow, and Bruce was a man who just wanted to help and used science to do it. They were people first, not files.

Steve couldn't help but think of their last remaining asset, Tony Stark. If this change in the files held true, the man couldn't possibly be as arrogant and lone-wolf as the file made it sound.

He was looking forward to meeting him and he knew Olivia would love the chance to meet Howard's son.

~8~

Olivia and Steve stood off to the side of the Bridge, waiting for the programs Fury instructed to find Loki to run. Phil had join them a short while ago, doing exactly as Natasha remarked to them, and bringing up his vintage trading card collection, asking if they would be willing to sign them.

"I mean, if it's not too much trouble..." he kept saying.

"No, no," Steve reassured him, "It's fine."

"We'd be happy to," Olivia promised.

Phil beamed at that, "It's a vintage set," he told them, proud of himself for it, "It took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint, slight foxing around the edges, but..."

"We can sign them now, if you'd like," Olivia offered.

"What, now, really?" it was clear Phil was just a wee bit short of jumping in place with the excitement that was clearly audible in his voice.

"Of course," Olivia laughed, "What better time than the present?"

Steve smiled when he saw Olivia playing with the end of the necklace he had gotten her, understanding her sentiment. They had both learned, in the middle of the war, that there really _was_ no better time than the present, because tomorrow was never a guarantee. And if their enemy had possession of the Tesseract, tomorrow really was not a guarantee again. There was no telling who would survive the upcoming battle. After all that time during the war, it had become their default mentality, when it came to something very important never to put it off, to always get it done as soon as they could.

These trading cards were clearly very important to Phil, he deserved to have them signed as soon as possible.

"Yeah, I can go get them right now," Phil only _just_ turned to do exactly that, when one of the other agents called out a report.

"We got a hit! 67 percent match. Weight, cross match, 79 percent."

Olivia reached out to pat Phil on his shoulder when the man bodily slumped, knowing he would have to put off getting his cards and having them signed, to deal with this threat, for it was for more important to the sake of the world.

"Location?" he called.

"Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."

"Major," Fury strode over, "Captain, you're up."

Olivia and Steve looked at each other, before nodding and not leaving the room, two SHIELD agents leading the way to where their new uniforms were being held.

~8~

Steve stood before his very own locker room, a steel cabinet with the doors already open showing his new and improved Captain America uniform, his shield recovered and resting beside it. He took a moment to look it over, not quite sure how he felt about it.

It was more brightly colored than he was used to, with very obvious red and white stripes down the middle section. The star on the center of the chest was more noticeable, the stark white color contrasting with the bright blue even more. Even the gloves and boots were a much more noticeable shade of red. The material too appear to be almost light weight in quality, certainly more modern in its creation, more like a uniform than army garb. His old uniform was more muted colors, with two red stripes and made out of a thicker leather material in order to stand against knife strikes and bullets.

On one hand, he would have preferred his old uniform, for the sense of familiarity, to really stay in the mindset of a soldier about to go to battle. The one in front of him reminded him too much of his show uniform, where he was just a mockery of what he could have been. But, on the other hand, he understood that Phil had quite a large hand in designing it, and with times like these, from what he had heard about in the paper and seeing it himself, perhaps they could do with more stars and stripes.

He shook his head, right now it really didn't matter how he felt, he was about to go to battle and he needed a uniform. This was the only one he had. So he stepped forward and pulled it out of the cabinet, quickly putting it on. He shut one of the metal doors of the cabinet in order to look at his reflection in the shiny metal. But he couldn't help the less than pleased expression he made, it wasn't his favorite uniform.

"Now you're getting a taste of what I felt," Olivia's voice said behind him, for once not sneaking up on him as he could see her approach in the reflection of the metal, blurry though it was, "Though, still, it isn't quite as bad as mine was."

He smiled and turned to face her, only to lose track of exactly what he was about to say when he saw her in her uniform.

Olivia fidgeted under his gaze, her left hand coming to rubbing her right elbow, "Is it awful?" she asked him, looking down at herself, "I thought it was quite nice..."

Steve just stepped closer, reaching out to take her hands, and leaned in to kiss her quickly, "You can wear a potato sack and still be the most beautiful woman in the world," he told her, smiling gently, "It suits you."

Olivia smiled from he praise and looked down at herself once more.

Her uniform was quite different than what it had been. It wasn't completely white to start off, it wasn't like a spandex jumpsuit, she didn't have a cape any longer. But there were some aspects of it that were somewhat similar, enough where she could be recognized as major Britannia, just an updated version.

It was still something of a jumpsuit, but red in color, dark red, almost burgundy. From the waist down it was red, but the top half was white. She still had boots, though they were a very dark blue leather, almost navy, up to just below her knees. And she still had gloves, not nearly as obnoxious as her last uniform. They only went up to a little past her wrist, the same navy blue, and fingerless. Phil had clearly taken into consideration her role as a Medic, sometimes the gloves she used to wear were too big and bulky and she couldn't get the right grip on bandages or other objects that she needed. She would often end up ripping them off with her teeth just to try and get things, which would not be a problem now that her fingers were exposed.

She had a jacket as well, instead of a cape, the same burgundy as her pants. The arms went down to covering just over her gloves, made of leather. It didn't close in the front, but laid open, though not enough where it was a large space, more like a single white stripe down her middle. It was just long enough to reach her hips, and there was a horizontal white patch, like a stripe, across the middle of it. She also had a white medic pack with a red cross on the back of it, with straps that crisscrossed over her front. Once removed from her back, it could also function like a bag she'd learned.

The uniform was very tastefully done. It was a very clear nod to the Union flag with the colors and the way her jacket and straps of her pack were designed. But it was a subtle impression, Phil had taken into account just how much her country had wanted her to represent them, but also making a suit that was actually practical for a medic on the field of battle. She even had a utility belt for some of the smaller items that she could use. She didn't even have a helmet like Steve though, which was something she was actually pleased with.

"For what it's worth," Olivia squeezed his hands once more before letting go to reach out and pick up his helmet as a rested off to the side by his shield, "You wear this suit well."

Steve smiled as she set the helmet on his head and strapped it, before he reached over to pick up his shield, "You ready for this?"

"I may need to stop off at the loo first," she joked, making him laugh.

A/N: Lol, that old joke keeps coming back around :) I wanted to give Olivia a uniform upgrade, since it was one we didn't really get to see her wear in the last story both because she didn't like her original and the only other one she wore was basic army garb. So it speaks to the Union Flag, in sort of pattern and somewhat in color, it's clear the symbol it's trying to be, it's just done in slightly different colors and in a different style than Steve's :)

But while she's dressed to be a medic...things are a lot more active and engaging in these times and Olivia may not be safe if she can't fight or have a way to defend herself... ;) ;) We'll have to wait and see how that develops ;)

I hope you enjoyed the parts with Coulson, he's just such an adorable fanboy I could NOT imagine him not having a crush on Olivia too lol :)

Some notes on reviews...

That may actually end up being the title for Civil War. Here they assemble, there they fall apart :'(

That is something I'm going to explore in this story, why Steve acts the way he does when he is slightly different in other movies. I think he's still sort of in the mentality of a 1945 soldier, and the rules of war and combat and everything have changed since then. His method of soldier-mode doesn't mesh well with everyone else who was born and raised in the modern era and learned to fight in the now. It's something I have big plans for when it comes to Olivia, because even though she's from 1945 like him, NOW is really where she'll be learning to fight and how to fight with teachers who have a very modern outlook. I think it's something that will help transition Steve and help him find balance along the way :)

I'm glad you like Olivia's way of coping :) That was actually something I used to do when my dad was sick. I would try to find at least one good thing about the day, beyond 'he's still here' to help keep up strength for the next day. It's something I still do when I'm having a hard time or things get to be too much, find just one thing, even if it's 'I tried to eat healthy' or 'a commercial made me laugh' :)

Olivia might be a bit in shock of Tony, since she only really had Howard to go off of, lol, but once that wears off I picture some teasing moments for them to come throughout the series :)

I'm not sure when exactly I'll get to Ardeth, but I'm hoping for next year or, at the very latest, the year after :) I'm really glad you're enjoying the stories so far :)


	3. It's Raining Men

It's Raining Men

As the quinjet approached Stuttgart, Germany, that night, the comm. systems were set to pick up any noise that was coming from Loki's location. If they were about to enter a hostile or hostage situation, they needed to know. They had managed to hack into security footage from around gala that had called in an attack and were able to see what was going on too.

The footage spared no detail of a crowd of people running out of the building, a man in green armor with a golden helmet that had two curved horns coming out of the top, holding a scepter with a blue glowing stone set in it, stalking all of them out. The people were trying to make an escape into the surrounding streets, civilians instantly rushing back the ways they'd come at the sound of screaming, police arriving to help with the situation, but the man they assumed to be Loki, just held up his scepter and fired an energy blast at them, flipping the cars over and subduing the police.

Olivia flinched at the sight and had to look away for a moment, it was clear to her that whatever was powering Loki's weapon was of the Tesseract in origin. It was the same energy she could remember the weapons of HYDRA being like, and the amount of destruction that was being done just to the police cars in general told her as much. Just like everything else that had become more advanced in the last 70 years, so had new weapons the Tesseract could power.

"Kneel before me!" Loki's voice came over the audio. It was clear the crowd was still fleeing and disregarding his presence and his order. But within the blink of an eye, another Loki appeared, blocking their way, and another and another, until the people were surrounded by images of Loki, all with their own menacing scepter.

"Can this craft go faster?" Olivia murmured to Natasha who was piloting the quinjet.

"If we go any faster we'll blow out cover," Natasha frowned, though it was clear in her voice that she would have loved to send the jet straight to the people. But if they came in too fast Loki would see them, and if he fired that weapon at them and managed to take out the jet, it could land on the people or buildings and cause more damage.

"I. Said. KNEEL!" Loki roared.

Olivia shook her head as they watched the frightened people move to their knees, falling silent in the face of Loki's anger and power.

"I really hate bullies," Steve murmured, Olivia reaching out to take his hand as they watched, helpless to do anything until they were closer.

Loki just grinned smugly and held out his arms wide as he spoke to them, "Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

"Is it awful that I want to punch him in the face?" Olivia asked, to a series of responding 'No's from everyone in the jet.

"I'll pop in one good for you," Steve promised her, squeezing her hand back tightly before he made his way to the ramp in the back of a jet, getting ready for his own attack.

Olivia watched as an older man refused to kneel and stood strong in the face of Loki, "Not to men like you."

"There are no men like me."

"There are _always_ men like you."

Olivia turned and made her way over to the ramp to help Steve. Seeing Loki fixating on the older man, it didn't take a seasoned battle veteran to know what would happen next, opposition had to be dealt with and eliminated, an example needed to be made.

"Look to your elder, people," they could still hear Loki speaking as Olivia began to man the controls of the ramp while Steve took his place, ready to jump, "Let him be an example."

Steve quickly hurled himself out of the jet, quickly assessing the situation on his way down. Loki had lifted the scepter, clearly ready to fire another blast at the older man. So he maneuvered himself to land in front of elderly fellow, his shield raised all ready, to block the blast and direct it back at Loki. He smirked when he saw the Asgardian knocked back on his bottom from the force of it. Though it told him something more about his current enemy which was enough to have him on the alert. Loki was resilient, a blast like that would have killed any normal human, but it only winded this enemy. He would need to be careful.

"You know," he began as he straightened up once more, "The last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing."

Steve heard a thump behind him, and knew it was Olivia having follow him out of the jet. He could hear her softly murmuring to the older man, checking that he was alright and uninjured. So he noted to himself that the people were safe behind him with her, and strode towards Loki as the man picked himself up.

"The soldier and the medic," Loki sneered, before laughing when Steve stepped to the side to block his gaze from Olivia, the man showed his weaknesses far too easily, "The poor little humans out of time."

Olivia looked up with a frown at that. As far as the file that held all their intel about Loki went, he was not human and not of Earth. There should have been no way for him to know about them, about their situation...until she realized he had compromised SHIELD agents, some of whom were likely privy to that information. They hadn't said in the mission report what the compromising was beyond the fact that anyone compromised by Loki seemed to obey his orders. It hadn't listed whether they were mindless drones or if the man had actually been able to twist them to his side yet still maintaining their minds. Now it appeared those who had been compromised were taking Loki's side, were assisting him with their own intelligence and knowledge, not just blindly following orders. And that made things infinitely worse. For any SHIELD agent to be able to divulge such sensitive and classified information to Loki, it wasn't just she and Steve who were known to Loki but everything else SHIELD had in its arsenal, all their bases, codes, enemies...it compromised the entire organization.

"We're not the ones who're out of time," Steve told Loki as the quinjet lowered itself yo hover just a few feet away, its weapons system opening and aiming straight at Loki.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down," Natasha's voice rang out.

Loki quickly lashed out, sending a blast from his scepter at the jet, causing it to pull out of the way just in time. But it was enough of a distraction for Steve to begin to engage with Loki, throwing his shield at the man to turn his attention over to him. Olivia quickly turned to the crowd and managed to get them to flee now that the other Lokis had disappeared with the man otherwise engaged. Olivia kept Steve in the corner of her eye though, making sure he wasn't being overpowered by Loki, that he hadn't been hurt. She heard his shield clatter to the ground and looked over to see Steve now fighting fist to fist with Loki.

In the blink of an eye the man had managed to get Steve onto his knee, "Kneel!" he ordered.

She had just taken the step over to assist, when Steve managed to kick up and send Loki stumbling away with a firm slam of his foot, "Not today!" Steve shouted.

But Loki got another advantage, landing another hit on Steve and sending him falling to the side just as an odd song began to play over the speakers of the quinjet. It was quite loud and obnoxious, Olivia was instantly not a fan of it, and she didn't quite know what was happening as she didn't think Natasha would play something of the sort in the middle of a mission.

"Agent Romanoff," a voice spoke within the song, broadcasting over the quinjet speakers, "Did you miss me?"

Olivia, Steve, and Loki looked up at the sky as a man in gold and red armor flew over them, firing a blast at Loki and knocking him to the ground. The man touched down and strode closer to Loki, holding up what appeared to be every weapon in his arsenal to keep the man down.

"Make your move, Reindeer Games," the man Olivia now recognized as Iron Man from the files, Tony Stark, threatened. Loki put his hands up and made his armor vanish, "Good move."

"Mr. Stark," Steve greeted as he stepped beside Iron Man.

"Captain," the man returned, "Should we flip for who gets to cuff him?"

But just as he spoke the quinjet set down and another SHIELD agent who had been piloting the craft with Natasha came out to do escort Loki into the craft.

Tony turned, watching the man's progression, when Olivia caught Tony's eye. He reached up to the helmet of his suit and pulled it off of his face, staring at her for a moment, "Huh..."

"I'm sorry?" Olivia spoke as she walked over to them, her eyes drifting over Steve to make sure he hadn't been hurt before she focused on Tony.

"The way dad talked about you, I thought you'd be taller," he shrugged, "Do I get to call you Liv?"

"We'll have to see," Olivia remarked, a little thrown by Tony's countenance and mannerisms. He seemed quite a bit more carefree than Howard had been, perhaps even a little more flippant, and, by his last remark, perhaps maybe a touch more arrogant, "For the moment," she held out a hand to shake his, "Olivia Williams, I'm very glad to meet you Mr. Stark."

He rolled his eyes at that, "Let's not do formalities. To you, Tony," before he pointed at Steve, "You, Stark."

Steve just shook his head at that, "We need to get back to base and find out where Loki stashed the Tesseract."

He took Olivia's hand, the two of them starting to walk back to the jet with Tony following, when Olivia felt a hand on her shoulder. She stilled and turned to see the older gentleman who had stood against Loki was standing there.

"Major...Major Britannia?" the man spoke, but the hesitation in his voice told her that he honestly wasn't sure if he was speaking to the right person.

She smiled and nodded, "Yes? I'm sorry, were you hurt? I should have something in my bag that..."

But, before she could finish, the man quickly stepped forward and hugged her tightly, startling her for only a moment before she returned the hug, never one to turn them down now that she can control her strength more.

"Danke," a man murmured as he pulled away, tears in his eyes, "Danke sehr," he began to fumble for the English as he took a breath, "My brother, my brother fought in the war. He fell, and he said there was an angel who picked him up, helped him to safety. My brother would not have lived past the war if not for you. Danke, danke, dass du meinen bruder gerettet hast."

"Of course," Olivia told him, gently pulling him into another hug as he began to weep in gratitude, patting his back in comfort, the man mumbling half in German and half in English, just thanking her over and over for saving his brother.

Steve couldn't help but smile as he watched the moment unfold. For as much as they needed to return to base with Loki, he would not interrupt this for anything in the world. It wasn't lost on him that he seemed to receive more praise and recognition for his efforts in the war than Olivia did though he always did his best to remind others she had been by his side through it all. He may have been on the front lines, he may have been leading the attacks against HYDRA, but if it hadn't been for Olivia so many more lives would have been lost. She deserved all the praise and recognition in the world, for undergoing Dr. Erskine's experiment, for putting herself in a position to have to help so many wounded men in dire straits, to have that burden of their lives in her hand, and for the kindness and the compassion she showed everyone. He had always been proud of her, and he thanked God everyday for having her in his life.

He was glad someone else was recognizing all she had done too.

~8~

There was a tension within the quinjet as Natasha and another SHIELD agent piloted the craft back to their air base. It wasn't just Natasha's obvious concern with the storm they were flying through, one that seemed to have come out of nowhere, it wasn't just the fact that Loki was in their custody, held in such a small space where he could cause quite a bit of destruction if he managed to free himself. It wasn't even just that Steve and Tony seemed to be a bit short with each other. Olivia couldn't really put her finger on exactly what one thing it was, tensions were just high.

"Said anything?" Olivia looked over when she heard Fury's voice speaking through Natasha's headset, standing closer to the cockpit than Steve, who was nearer the ramp with Tony.

"Not a word," Natasha replied.

"Just get him here. We're low on time."

Olivia couldn't help but feel like that might have been partially her fault. She knew that time was of the essence with this mission, yet she had spared an extra minute or two to speak to the old gentleman in Germany. She hadn't had the heart to cut him off before he had been able to get out his full thoughts to her. The man seemed to realize, though, that it was a very serious situation and he hadn't taken very long. But she knew just how much every moment could count on a mission. And now they were a few minutes late because of her. No one in the jet would say it, but she was sure some of them must have felt it.

She moved away from the cockpit and sat across the jet from where Loki was. The man was tied up and handcuffed to his seat, but she felt like there should be more eyes on him, she didn't trust him worth anything.

"I don't like it," she could hear Steve whispering to Tony.

"What?" Tony spoke just as quietly in return, "Rock of Ages giving up so easily?"

Perhaps _that_ was where the tension laid, it was something everyone had noticed. Loki was in possession of a Tesseract powered weapon, yet he gave up when _one man_ held a laser at him? She had seen Red Skull being attacked by an entire army, and yet he had not given up the power of the Tesseract that easily. The man was resilient, he was strong, and he was clearly clever. And yet he handed himself over as though it was nothing. He didn't struggle, he didn't speak, he didn't try to turn them on each other with his words, she didn't know what his game plan was but it was putting everyone on edge.

"I don't remember it ever being that easy. This guy packs a wallop."

"Still, you are pretty spry, for an older fellow. What's your thing? Pilates?"

Olivia had to look over at Tony for that, a mixture of confusion and befuddlement on her face, adding yet another difference between Tony and his father. Even when they were headed into the enemy camp, even when Howard had been flirting somewhat with Peggy, there had always been a note of being serious, of knowing what needed to be done, of keeping focused. Tony had seemed to be both insulting and somewhat complementing Steve at the same time. He certainly was far more flippant than his father had been.

"What?" Steve seemed confused too.

"It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle."

Olivia wasn't sure how to react to something like that, Tony had seemed somewhat alright with her, but it was becoming clear to her that he had something of an issue with Steve with the backhanded compliments. While she didn't expect respect from every single person, firmly believing it should be earned, she did at least expect it from those who worked for SHIELD. She and Steve had more than earned a modicum of respect for all they had endured during the war, for all of their efforts against HYDRA.

Just as she would respect Tony, and any other SHIELD agent she came across, because they were making efforts to keep the world safe. Tony seemed to want to needle Steve more than respect him.

Steve seemed to try and steer the conversation away, "Fury didn't tell us he was calling you in."

They knew Tony was going to be part of their search for the Tesseract, he was listed among the specialists being called in by SHIELD. But neither of them had known he would actually be in Germany, acting in his Iron Man capacity. Dr. Banner has been brought in for his mind, not because he was the Hulk.

Tony smirked, "Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you."

"Oh dear," Olivia gasped slightly as she nearly fell off of the bench she was sitting on when a bolt of lightning nearly hit the jet, causing it to shake violently.

"Where's this coming from?" Natasha grumbled to herself though they could all hear her.

"Is there something wrong?" Olivia asked, though when Steve looked over he saw she was directing the question at Loki, who appeared quite tense and very displeased with the situation.

"What's the matter?" Steve asked the man, "Scared of a little lightning?"

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," was all Loki replied.

He hadn't even finished speaking when what felt like lightning actually hit the jet this time. Although Olivia and Steve looked up, hearing something thump _onto_ the ship, before the sound moved to the ramp. Barely a second later, the ramp was torn open, a man in silver armor with a red cape and blond hair reaching in to grab Loki by the throat, yanking him out of the ship, flying off into the storm.

"Now there's that guy," Tony quickly put the Iron Man helmet back on, preparing for another fight.

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha called back, trying to turn the quinjet around.

"Think the guy's a friend?" Steve called above the noise of the storm, Olivia rushing over, parachutes already in her hand.

"Doesn't matter," Tony moved to the open ramp, "If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost."

"Tony wait!" Olivia shouted.

"Stark, we need a plan of attack!" Steve agreed.

"I have a plan: attack," Tony said, not giving them a moment to reply as he drove out of the side of the jet, activating blasters on his armor to speed after the two Asgardians.

"Here," Olivia quickly helped Steve put on one of the parachutes, Steve returning the favor as soon as he was secure.

"I'd sit this one out!" Natasha called back to them.

"We can't just leave Tony alone," Olivia argued, not just because he was Howard's son, but just in terms of human decency.

"Never leave a man behind," Steve quickly secured the last strap on Olivia's parachute.

"These guys come from legends, they're basically gods," Natasha warned.

"There's only one God, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that," Steve answered, moving to the edge of the ramp with Olivia. He gave her a firm nod, which she returned, before the two of them quickly jumped out of the ship after Tony.

~8~

Olivia did her best to keep Tony in sight as she and Steve parachuted down towards land. Even in the dark of night, they could still make out the flashing lights of laser blasts and crackling electricity thrown between Tony and the man who had seized Loki. The fugitive Asgardian himself was standing high above the two feuding people, his arms crossed, freed of his bindings, just watching them. Olivia frowned when she caught sight of it, he wasn't even making _any_ attempt to escape, which only added more to her suspicions and thoughts about just how easy it had been to apprehend him in the first place.

Her attention was brought back to the fight Tony was having when there was a crashing noise as Tony flew straight into the man's back, trying to take him out. But the other Asgardian was just as resilient as Loki appeared to be, managing to stand his ground.

Steve seemed to realize the severity of the situation, from his own battle with Loki, and quickly maneuvered his parachuted to take him down directly at the fugitive. He crashed into Loki as he landed, knocking the man to the ground, and appearing to knock him out as well. He quickly unstrapped himself from the parachute and looked up at Liv, just a moment behind him, only just landing a few feet away.

"Go," she called over to Steve, a cross between an order and an urging, "Help Tony, I can secure Loki."

Steve gave a firm nod and turned, rushing to the edge of a small cliff, hopping on top of a fallen log and looking down at where the other Asgardian was about to pounce and hurled his shield at the two of them, ricocheting off of the man's hammer, his weapon, and off of Iron Man's chest plate, drawing both of their attention.

"Hey!" he shouted down at them, managing to grab his shield back, "That's enough!" he spared one more glance behind him, to see Olivia was making quick work of securing Loki with another pair of handcuffs, before he jumped off of the log and down to the other two men, "Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here..." he spoke to the Asgardian.

"I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes!" the man shouted.

"Then prove it! Put the hammer down."

"Um, yeah, no!" Tony scoffed, "Bad call! He loves his hammer..."

Tony barely got the last word out before the other Asgardian slammed his hand into him, hurling him away with little effort. He barely paid Tony any mind as he strode towards Steve, not even noticing Olivia appearing on the log above them.

"You want me to put the hammer down?" the man demanded, before leaping into the air, raising the hammer above him, clearly intending to bring it down on Steve himself.

Olivia jumped off of the log, landing on the ground, trusting Steve would be able to handle the man with the hammer, but needing to check on Tony for he had not gotten up yet. The Asgardian reached Steve, who had raised his shield, bracing for an impact, and slammed down against the shield.

Both sides clearly underestimated the power of the other for a massive explosion of light appeared, a reaction from the vibranium shield with the electricity generated by the hammer, sending out a massive shockwave that threw everyone off their feet, and destroying everything surrounding them.

Tony groaned as he managed to stand up, looking around at the utter destruction that had been caused, seeing Steve pick himself up as well, both of them looking at the Asgardian, who finally appeared calm or startled enough to actually listen to them instead of react when he saw the two men would not back down and were ready to defend themselves against him with a power of their own.

"Are we done here?" Steve demanded, sounding completely done with the situation.

The Asgardian merely gave a short nod, signaling he would not attack them if they did not attack him in return.

"Steve?" Olivia called.

Steve instantly turned around to face her when he heard the slightest hitch in her voice, something like a whimper but not quite, called out, "Liv!" and rushing to her side.

She was standing there, with her left hand pressed onto her right side, he could already see bits of red seeping between her fingers, she was wounded. Just as he reached her, she reached out with her right hand to put it on his shoulder for more stability. Her breathing not labored or intensive, but clearly focused. While he and Olivia had a higher pain tolerance than most, the wound was still a wound that needed to be treated.

"No," Olivia murmured when Steve moved to try and pull her hand away to look at the injury himself, "I've already examined it, it's fine, looks worse than it is, but I should keep pressure on it."

"She alright?" Tony quickly moved to her other side, reaching out with to grab her arm gently for more balance, "What happened?"

"It was nothing," she said quickly, "I lost my footing, and fell on quite a sharp rock."

It was quite embarrassing now that she said it out loud, how she had been felled by a mere pointy stone. But it was the truth. She was sure, had she not said anything, they would assume Loki had attacked her. Steve would be out for blood if that happened, they needed Loki in one piece. She had jumped down from where Steve had, only moments before the Asgardian with the hammer had slammed it onto Steve's shield causing the shockwave. She hadn't anticipated the energy from the wave to be as much as it had been or she would have braced herself better.

The man seemed to realize it had been his blow with the hammer that had caused her harm, and he stepped forward, "I offer my most sincere apologies," he began, before he looked up at Steve for the next part, "I did not mean to cause harm to your woman."

Steve grit his teeth at the description. While Olivia was his best girl, and so much more than that, it felt like an objectification when others called her 'his woman.' But it seemed to hit both him and Tony just then that THEY had both had a hand in her injury with how they had opposed and held themselves with this man. They had engaged him to the point where he had attacked the way he had and she'd gotten injured because of their ego.

"I'll be _fine_ ," Olivia insisted, "Honestly, I will, I don't lie about wounds. I just need to get back to the jet so I have a more stable and sterile place to treat it. And we need to get Loki back to base," she looked to the man with the hammer for that, "He has taken an object of enormous power and means to harm the people of this world with it," she explained to him, "We would like to take Loki with us so we might be able to find it."

The man looked between Tony and Steve, before smiling, "Why didn't either of you say that in the first place!"

Tony opened his mouth to answer, but just shook his head, turning to Olivia and gently tugging her, as though trying to take her away from Steve, "Let me get you back to the jet..."

"No, I can help her back," Steve countered, stepping closer to Olivia instead of tugging her nearer to him, "She's my partner, I can take care of her."

"Ummm...if you could take care of her she wouldn't be injured right now, just saying," he said at the last two words with his hands held up in surrender.

"Stark..."

"Look, the jet is still in the air, you won't be able to jump high enough to reach it. Neither of us is going to trust Point Break here with her. One of us has to stay here, with him to make sure Loki is secure. _I'm_ the only one here who can fly her to the jet so she can take care of her wound sooner...unless you like seeing her suffer..."

"Tony, please, enough," she looked between the two, knowing Tony's words would upset Steve very much. He always hated to see her in any sort of pain and strove to protect her from everything. Tony was being quite unfair to him, to try and spin this time as though it were Steve's fault, "We secure Loki and wait for the jet to land," she gave the order, fixing all of them with a firm look that told them there would be no argument about it, before she turned and began to walk off, back in the direction they had left Loki.

Steve shot Tony a glare and hurried after Olivia, sweeping her off her feet so he could carry her the rest of the way.

They both deftly ignored the whipping noise Tony made behind them, not sure what it meant and not really wanting to know.

A/N: Olivia seems to be comparing Tony to his father a bit here, I know, but she's slowly going to be getting to know Tony for who he is as a person not as Howard's son. It's sort of just something she couldn't help doing when she found out Howard had a son, wondering what he was like, if he was like his father at all :) And Tony, I feel, is a little conflicted about how to feel about Olivia. I always felt like he partially blamed Steve for how distant his father was growing up, that he might resent him a bit and that's where some of the animosity comes from. A leader of armies with a man who would rather work solo would but heads, but I feel like sometimes Tony made it a bit more personal. But he doesn't know how to react around Olivia because she's a woman and he wants to be respectful of her in that regard, but she was also part of the problem with his father, but she seems like a compassionate person so he can't quite openly or fully hate her, but he doesn't know how to express himself so for now he just sort of tries to be neutral :/ But I have quite a few moments planned for Tony when it comes to Olivia once he gets to know her ;) Whether or not Steve will be pleased with all of them we'll have to wait and see ;)

Poor Olivia getting hurt :( I know she and Steve are quite resilient, but I figure with a shockwave as powerful as the one Thor created, it could probably send her flying back with enough force that hitting a rock at the right angle would hurt her :( In the long run it will actually be the catalyst to a turning point for her, which we'll see very soon ;)

Some notes on reviews...

Oh I have quite a meaningful moment planned for when Olivia decides if she should let Tony call her Liv or not ;)

Natasha is certainly going to be a big supporter of Olivia finding her 'inner warrior' ;)

That sounds like an awesome trick for the drink :) There was definitely a bit of protective jealous Steve with Coulson, it made me laugh :) I'll have to watch that video, it sounds amazing :) Tony might try to flirt with Olivia once he sort of gets past his general resentment of the two supers, but it may be short lived as he will have plenty more material to tease Olivia with and irritate Steve over ;)

Iced tea is going to be something that haunts Olivia for a while to come ;)


	4. A Different Time

A Different Time

Olivia sat on the bench of the quinjet, almost in the same spot she had before Thor, as he'd introduced himself, had stolen Loki. She had her medic bag sitting beside her, having been working on dressing her wound. It truly hadn't been as bad as it had looked, it just bled quite profusely at first. She wasn't sure if it was something to do with Dr. Erskine's experiment, whether the wound had started to heal faster than she anticipated, which made it look better than it had been. She hadn't exactly been injured in the field of battle, so she didn't quite know what her rate of healing was beyond some small experiments done after her procedure. Whatever it was, though, she was grateful, had the wound looked as bad as it appeared to her when she first assessed it, she was sure that Steve would have been beating himself up about it. Not that he wasn't already, but it would have been much worse.

It hadn't taken much of her supplies to treat it, it almost appeared to be something of a deep scratch as opposed to a gaping wound. She had cleaned it, she had covered it with an antibacterial salve, and dressed it with bandages. When she had first seen the wound, she had thought she would need Steve's help to bind it, to wrap a bandage around her middle to hold others in place. But it wasn't as bad as it first appeared and she was able to get by with a patch over her side held there with some quite sturdy medical tape.

She set the supplies back into her bag and looked up to smile at Steve, "See, nothing I can't handle."

The man was standing across from her, watching her so intently she could feel his gaze on her throughout the entire process. He had set himself up there as though a sentinel, tense and alert, ready to lunge forward if the jet moved more than she was anticipating. It was honestly quite sweet.

When they first got onto the jet and she began to try and tend to herself, Steve tried to help her. It was difficult to work on herself with just one hand digging through her pack while holding her side with her other hand. But she kept insisting that she was fine. Given the way the three men had reacted when she had first been wounded, she was more than a little concerned that they might start squabbling among themselves if she gave the impression that the wound was worse than it appeared. It really _wasn't_ that bad, she really could do it herself, she just needed a bit of careful thought on how to proceed.

By tending her wound on her own, she felt it would help the men see that it wasn't a serious injury, it wasn't severe, it didn't warrant their concern to the extent they had displayed. It was just taking more doing than she anticipated. Steve had instantly moved to help her, but he fumbled just a little bit, not quite used to how she had set up her bag. During the war they had both settled into their individual roles quite well, she handled the wounded and he handled the battle. She knew that Steve had some experience with treating smaller wounds, bruises, cuts, since, from what he had told her of his life, he had gotten bullied quite bad and needed to know how to treat himself.

But it was almost as though, over that year, Steve had gotten used to her treating wounds and was a bit rusty after 70 years. That, and she could tell he was quite nervous to have to tend to _her_. She was important to him, she was someone he never wanted to see hurt in the first place, and having to treat the wound of someone you loved could be a daunting task. She had gotten used to it during the war, she tried to look at it more as seeing the wound and not the person until everything was settled. Steve's hands has been shaking and he seemed so hesitant to press any sort of cleaning solution that could sting to it, so she had reached out and stilled him, taking the few supplies he had gotten from the bag and reassuring him she could handle it just fine.

Of course Steve wouldn't go far, standing there and keeping watch as the whole time to keep any more harm from coming to her.

He gave her a smile in return for her words, but didn't appear able to say anything, so she reached out to take his hand, squeezing it in a reassurance that, despite Tony's words, this was _not_ his fault. She honestly didn't know why Tony had said such a thing.

She glanced up, knowing that Tony was flying in his Iron Man suit along the plane, intending to keep guard should any other Asgardian want to seize Loki. It was likely a good thing, she was getting the idea that keeping Tony and Steve in a small confined space was not going to do anyone much good until they'd cooled off.

She might have said the same thing about having two Asgardians in the same place, but Thor seemed to be keeping true to his word and was keeping a close eye on Loki.

She looked over when Natasha plopped down on the bench beside her, looking up at Steve, "Fury wants a word," she told him, nodding her head towards the front of the jet.

Steve let out a quiet, reluctant noise, not wanting to step away from Olivia, but she squeezed his hand once more and let go, nodding her own head towards the front in a sign that it was fine. He gave her a small smile, leaning forward to drop a kiss on the top of her head before he made his way to the front, sitting down in the pilot's seat Natasha had vacated to speak to Fury.

"You doing alright?" Natasha asked, glancing at Olivia.

Olivia rolled her eyes, having been asked that question too many times already, "I'm _fine_ ," she insisted, "Better than I was and healing fast."

Natasha nodded, "Gotta say though, it was surprising, seeing you injured."

"I'm sure it was for Steve too," Olivia offered, "I wasn't injured much during the war."

"Because of a serum."

Olivia gave her an odd look, "Because I was a medic and, more than that, I'm a woman," Natasha looked a little confused, "Women were kept from the front lines during the war, I was only allowed onto the field as a medic if I remained behind the lines."

And it was true, that was the only reason her country had even allowed her onto the battlefield at all was if she kept away from the front lines. The women, while helping with the war effort, were not allowed on the field of battle in the same sense as a soldier was. It had been a very big to-do for her to even step onto the battlefield while the battle was taking place.

Natasha just stared at her.

Olivia shifted slightly under the scrutiny, "Have I said something wrong?"

Natasha opened her mouth one or two times, as though trying to find the words to say what she was thinking, taking a moment longer before she had her thoughts focused, "You never actually _fought_ in the War."

"No," Olivia stated, giving Natasha an odd look and wondering why she didn't seem to know that, "Medics were not meant to engage with the enemy, we got the wounded off the field of battle, we treated them as best we could to stabilize them on the field. We were designated non-combatants."

"Non-combatants" she repeated, "No combat, no fighting, no weapon..."

"Medics were expected to carry weapons," Olivia reassured her, hearing that the woman seemed to be getting a little outraged for some reason, "In case the enemy did try to attack for some reason. Medics were only to use their weapon in defense of the wounded. But it was up to the medic in question whether or not they did carry the weapon or even use it."

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say you never had a weapon," Natasha stated dryly.

"If I was kept from the front lines and far away from the enemy, why would I need a weapon," Olivia stated, what should have been a question was more of a logical explanation.

"Do you even know _how_ to fight?" Natasha asked, shaking her head as she observed Olivia.

It was starting to make sense to her now, the way Olivia seemed to operate around the others. She had been watching closely from the moment Captain America jumped out of the jet in Germany. Steve jumped out first, initiated the attack against the enemy, Olivia followed, staying behind and tending to the people. Loki attacked Steve and, instead of engaging the enemy with him, Olivia focused on getting the civilians away. She could understand that, the more civilians there were the more they could be used as leverage. She hadn't thought much of it at the time. But then came the attack from Thor. Steve immediately jumped out of the plane, with Olivia yes, but from what she knew of how the battle had gone, Olivia had stayed behind to secure Loki while Steve went to confront Thor. Steve engaged in the battle, and Olivia had been going to check on Tony where he had fallen.

It was making so much sense now.

Olivia wasn't the one engaging with the enemy because she didn't know how to fight the enemy in the first place.

"I know the basics," Olivia offered hesitantly, seeming to sense that Natasha was displeased with something she had heard, "When I stayed with the Commandos, they showed me some basic moves."

"Some basic moves," Natasha repeated before falling silent and thoughtful.

Olivia wasn't quite sure what she had said that had led to this, she had just been honest, but Natasha did not appear happy with what she had heard. A few minutes of the silence went by before Olivia tried to ask Natasha what was wrong with what she said, but Steve was already coming back, and Natasha seemed to take it as her cue to return to the pilot's seat.

Steve sat beside her, taking Natasha spot, "We should be there any minute now," he told her.

Olivia nodded and turned to look at him, "Thank you."

Steve gave her an odd look, "For what?"

She could hear it in his voice, that he felt like she should be blaming him for the wound in her side. But she shook her head, giving him a smile, "For this," she reached up with her right hand to tap her chest, where he could see thin chain of the necklace he had given her disappearing beneath her shirt line, and knew she was tapping the objects on the end of it, "I could have been hurt far worse had it not been for these."

He felt himself smiling, despite the fact that he still blamed himself for her getting hurt at all. If he had just been more aware of the situation, if he had just noticed her drop down behind him, he could have maneuvered himself differently so she wouldn't have been hurt. But it meant the world to him to know that she felt like he had done _something_ to keep her safe, even if it was in the form of something that they both joked were good luck charms to each other. She was trying to tell him that she thought the gift he had given her had been enough to keep her from being harmed worse.

Olivia smiled a little more when she saw him starting to grin, and leaned in to kiss his cheek, before resting her head on his shoulder, resting the last few minutes of the flight.

~8~

It was quite the procession, bringing Loki into the SHIELD air base. All those who had taken him in, could not help the feeling of unease that came with it. Even while Loki was in handcuffs and chained on his march through the halls, he was _smiling_. He looked as though he were inordinately pleased with the situation, not an emotion that they would expect from a prisoner. They were all gathered now in the command center of the ship, close to the Bridge, waiting for Fury to join them. The scepter Loki had been using delivered to the lab, Bruce managing to start running preliminary scans on it before he joined them as well. They were watching on the monitors as Loki was escorted into a holding cell, what look like a cylinder made of glass in the middle of a circular room. A single control panel was set up before it with Fury standing beside it.

They could hear and see everything that was going on in the room, clearly something intentional that Fury had orchestrated.

"In case it's unclear," Fury began to speak to Loki, the Asgardian barely turning in the glass container to face him, not seeming on edge or perturbed with the situation, "You try to escape. You so much as _scratch_ that glass..." Fury pressed a button on the control panel beside him, causing the bottom of the floor, just under the cell, to open up so that the only way to reach it with the pathway from the control panel to the doors of the cell.

They watched as Loki merely meandered his way to the edge of the cell and leaned over as much as he could to look down. From their vantage point they could see it was quite a fall, the base was very high up.

But Loki didn't appear concerned at all.

"Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap," Fury confirmed, "You get how that works?!" with another push of a button the hatch beneath the cell closed and Fury pointed at Loki, "Ant," and then to the button that would drop the cell through the floor, "Boot."

Loki seemed to be enjoying the threat in Fury's voice, the man merely smirking, "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard," Loki looked directly at the camera, speaking as though specifically to them, "The mindless beast makes play he's still a man."

Olivia looked over at Bruce when the man flinched at what Loki said. But that was something she still couldn't understand. Why was he beginning to speak _now_? He had been in a small confined space with two people who clearly were at odds with each other, and yet he had said nothing to try and turn them against each other. He could have done _something_ while he was in their possession on the way over to free himself, but he hadn't. It was feeling more and more like he'd let himself be captured. And if he had done that then it could only mean he _wanted_ to be here. She didn't know if his plan was to get to Bruce, to upset him, to do exactly as she feared he would do on the jet on a much larger base...or if there was something else here that he wanted for his plans.

"How desperate are you," Loki continued, though his attention drifted back to Fury, "That you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am _I_?" Fury scoffed, "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill`cause it's _fun_. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh..." Loki mocked, "It burns you to come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what _real_ power is."

Despite the fact that Loki was clearly trying to rile and taunt him, Fury, to his credit, didn't rise to the bait, but merely smiled at Loki, "Well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something."

Olivia shifted uncomfortably when they watched the footage of Fury leaving Loki locked in the cage, the Asgardian merely returned his attention back to the camera, smiling as though he knew they were there, watching him. The monitors only remained on for a moment longer before the footage cut off completely.

She looked around the room to see everyone else's reaction. Steve didn't appear much affected by what Loki had said, he was silent though appeared quite serious. Natasha was standing over by Maria Hill, speaking quietly with the woman who kept glancing over at her. Bruce was sitting there, fidgeting slightly, trying to smile, clearly trying to play off just how affected he was. Thor hadn't even bothered watching the footage, merely listening to what was being said and, while she couldn't see his face from that angle, she could tell from his body language that he was tense. He would know better than any of them what Loki was capable of and he was clearly worried about what the man's plans might be.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce asked after a moment, sounding more as though he was just trying to break the obvious tension and seriousness that had descended on them.

"Not quite," Olivia offered in return, giving the man of small smile for his efforts. She looked over at Steve who appeared lost in thought, and nudged him slightly, "He reminds me of Hodge if he actually bothered to use his brain."

Steve snorted at that, jarred out of his serious thoughts. There was something else Loki had in common with Hodge, a man who had been Colonel Phillips choice for Dr. Erskine's experiment, "He's gonna drag this out," he remarked, thinking about how Hodge had not let it go when they had been in basic training, always picking on him, never letting him catch a break. He glanced over at Thor, the man seeming equally as thoughtful, "So, Thor, what's his play?"

Thor shook himself and looked over at the group as they sat around the table, all turning their attention to him, "He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

Olivia blinked at that, "An army...from outer space?"

Steve leaned over, whispering to her, "Surprised yet?"

She leaned back in her chair, turning to face him to reply, "Not very. Michael took Peggy and I to see the Flash Gordon movie once."

Steve chuckled at that, recalling that movie, he and Bucky had seen it too. Space adventures, other planets, aliens, taking that into account aliens attacking Earth wasn't actually all that surprising. He leaned back in his chair again, though reached out to take Olivia's hand in his.

"So he's building another portal," Bruce called out, "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor look up at that, clearly recognizing the name.

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Natasha told him, moving to join them back at the round table they sat at, apparently done speaking to Maria, "Along with one of ours."

"Loki also has knowledge of SHIELD bases, weapons, plans," Olivia warned them all, "He knew about Steve and I and he's not been on Earth long enough to know of us unless someone from SHIELD, one of the compromised agents, told him. And if they could tell Loki about us, there's far more dangerous information they could share."

Natasha looked as though she wanted to argue, wanted to say that Barton would never disclose such confidential information, but held her tongue, because, while he wouldn't under normal circumstances, as a brainwashed soldier there might be not be anything he wouldn't disclose.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him," Steve offered, "He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," Bruce shrugged, "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak," Thor warned the man, "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha informed him.

"...he's adopted?"

"Iridium," Bruce spoke out, seeming to just be voicing his thoughts, "What did they need the Iridium for?"

Before anyone else could answer, a voice spoke from one of the hallways, Tony entering room, "It's a stabilizing agent," he called over to them, before finishing his conversation with Phil as the man entered with him, "I'll fly you there. Keep the love alive," and then turned his attention back to them, "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD," he eyed Thor, "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing," and then turned to Bruce, "Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long as Loki wants," he spun around, standing before the main control panel to address the rest of the SHIELD agents, "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing Galaga!" he spun around, pointing at a man off to the side, "Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did," and then, just as suddenly, covered one of his eyes and tried to look at the machinery and monitors around him, "How does Fury do this?"

Olivia shook her head as she tried to keep up with what Tony was saying. He was changing the person he talked to and the subject he was talking about so often and so quickly she honestly wasn't sure what was going on right now. And she had seen Peggy when she got flustered. It didn't happen often, Peggy was so very composed most of the time, but when she was truly flustered and stressed she could talk a mile a minute with so many conflicting thoughts and too many different topics that she could only just barely keep up. Tony was certainly giving Peggy a run for her money.

"He turns," Maria spoke.

Tony fiddled with the monitors for a moment, looking around at them, even leaning down to examine the wires under the desk portion of it, before standing and sighing, "Well, that sounds exhausting," so he seemed to finally come back around to the iridium, "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

Maria gave Tony the same look as everyone else, "When did _you_ become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

Tony shrugged, unperturbed by her skepticism, "Last night," he said simply, looking around at the others, half teasing them, "The packet? Selvig's notes? The Extraction Theory papers? Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"...if _you_ have the packet, how could _we_ do the reading?" Olivia countered.

Tony pointed at her as though she made a very good point.

Steve shook his head, trying to focus on the situation at hand, "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"

"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce told them.

But Tony shook his head, "Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet."

 **"** Finally, someone who speaks English!"

Steve looked between them, completely confused, before turning to Olivia, "Is that what just happened?"

"Whatever that was, it certainly wasn't the Queen's English," Olivia murmured in response, blinking her eyes rapidly, honestly not following a word that the two men had just said.

Tony just approached Bruce, reaching out to shake his hand, "It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

Bruce actually seemed amused by Tony's last remark, looking down as though trying to hide a chuckle, "Thanks."

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube," Director Fury called out as he strode into the room and over to Maria's side, standing before the main controls, "I was hoping you might join him," he added to Tony, who nodded.

"Could the scepter help?" Olivia wondered, looking over to the two men, "It works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon, and they were all powered by the Tesseract. Would you be able to use the energy signal from that to find the Tesseract?"

"It might be possible," Bruce began.

Tony let out a hissing noise though, "It's a small enough weapon that it may not have the range to connect to the main Tesseract."

"You two get on examining that scepter," Fury told them, "I want to know how it works, every trick it can do, and how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor shook his head, completely confused, "I do not understand."

"I do!" Steve called out, "I understood that reference."

Tony rolled his eyes at the man's outburst, but Steve just looked quite pleased that he _finally_ understood something that was being said about all this.

"I'm not sure I do," Olivia looked around the room, completely lost.

Steve seemed surprised by her remark, "You've never seen 'The Wizard of Oz?'"

"I was supposed to...things just got in the way," Olivia offered, and Steve squeezed her hand harder, knowing what her version of 'things getting in the way' was. Some sort of illness that came up that prevented her from being able to go out and see the movie. If she didn't understand the reference even from the movie, there was also a chance she hadn't read it in the books the movie was based on either.

"They were the puppets, the henchmen, of the villain," Steve explained simply and Olivia nodded.

"Speaking of children's entertainment," Tony cut in, turning to Bruce, "Shall we play, doctor?"

Bruce nodded, "Let's play some," he agreed, turning to walk out of the room with Tony.

"And, speaking of playing," Natasha clasped her hands on the edges of her chair to push herself up, a sly smile on her face as she moved around the table, "Come on Dorothy," she patted Olivia on the shoulder, signaling for her to get up, "You, me, and Hill are taking a little trip to Kansas."

Olivia looked steadily more confused even as she slowly stood up, Steve quickly moving to follow.

"What's the situation in Kansas?" Steve asked, suddenly serious, even though he understood the reference, Natasha clearly knew Olivia didn't so it didn't make sense to him for them to bring up Kansas unless there was some sort of mission involving it, "Has there been some sort of attack, a SHIELD base in jeopardy?"

"Oh no," Natasha shook her head, patting Steve on the chest twice to signal him to stay there, "Girls only."

"If you're taking my partner on a mission..." Steve began, a threat steadily growing in his tone.

He didn't like it when he and Olivia were separated, even less when it was them being on separate missions. He'd had enough of her being pulled away from him during the war, the constant worrying and fear for her while she wasn't with him. And he knew she felt the same way, worrying about him and the Commandos. It was even worse now, they just didn't like being separated and he could already feel a pressure building in his chest at the thought of her not being beside him while they waited on Loki to talk or Bruce and Tony to get more data on the scepter.

"No mission," Maria reassured him, "We are just..."

"Kidnapping her for an hour or two," Natasha answered, "Like I said, girls only."

And, with that, Natasha reached out to gently grab Olivia by the arm, tugging her away from Steve and towards the door. Maria gave Steve a small salute before she followed the woman out, a small smirk on her face.

Steve could only watch them go with a clenched jaw and a hand squeezing his heart when he lost sight of her around a corner. He swallowed hard and shook his head, trying to remind himself that Maria Hill was Fury's right hand woman and Olivia would be in no danger with her around, that Natasha worked for SHIELD and wouldn't hurt her either. He took a deep breath and forced himself to leave the room, he needed to see if there was a training room or a punching bag or something around to distract him till Olivia was back.

A/N: Hmmm…Natasha did not seem pleased with learning more about Olivia's role in the war, and now she AND Hill have 'kidnapped' her? I wonder what for… }:)

But poor Steve, he misses her already :)

Not much Tony-Olivia interaction here, but she's also being whisked away by the women and no boys allowed, even Tony ;)

Some notes on the reviews...

Lol, it did sound a bit old-fashioned near the end :) I take it as Steve and Thor would be old-fashioned just naturally, and Tony sort of wants to irritate Steve so he joins in with the old-fashioned competition going on lol :)

Olivia will have a few lines here and there, she's really going to be talking more as the series goes. I feel like a part of her being quiet recently is that she doesn't really know her role or part to play. Steve is a soldier, he can fight, he'll always be relevant. But she's the medic, there's no war, nor would SHIELD let her go to war, she's not sure what her purpose is anymore. So as she tries to work out where she fits, she sort of falls a bit quiet because she doesn't know whats ok for this era. But it appears Natasha and Maria are about to give her a crash course ;) As for the iced tea, yup! She's sort of like 'any world where people are mad enough to put ice in TEA will make anything possible' :)

Lol, those do sound like very amusing scenes ;)

It's understandable :) I think that's where an interesting contrast between Tony and Steve comes in. Tony makes mistakes and acts before thinking, which creates a lot of his mistakes, he's a bit arrogant at times. I feel like Tony has only recently begun to understand what responsibility is, and it's something Steve, especially living during the war, has always known and grown up with. Steve has to stop and think, because he knows how to act as part of a team and how dangerous rushing in with no plan can be for the other teammates, but Tony has often been a solo act. I also feel like Tony sometimes knows how his actions will affect others, and has affected others, but if he focuses on that, admits to it, lets it affect him, he won't be able to make the choices and decisions he needs to make as Iron Man. He's certainly complicated :/ It's something Olivia is going to note and speak about before this story is over ;)

Olivia does prefer this uniform more than her old one, far more practical :) Olivia, in a modern sense, does make women appear one way, but she's also from the 1940s and she's still trying to find her place in all this and in a new world where women are allowed to do so much more than they were :) As she learns more about our era, she'll certainly grow stronger and more secure :)


	5. Basic Training, Take Two

Basic Training, Take Two

Olivia sat on a small bench in what appeared to be some sort of training room of the base. There were mats on the floor and on the walls, but it was far too large to be a cell. Natasha and Maria were standing before her, their arms crossed, small smirks on their faces.

"I'm sorry?" Olivia blinked, having just heard what they were planning to do and still feeling a little lost from the entire odd conversation that had just happened in the command center, "You want to what?"

"We're going to teach you how to fight," Natasha said simply.

"Every agent of SHIELD goes through basic training," Maria explained, "This isn't the army, we're a little more extensive than any training you might have had in the past. I'm sure Fury told you, we take care of our own, we want to make sure everyone is able to defend themselves."

Olivia was silent for a moment, a thoughtful look on her face even though she wore a small frown, looking between the two woman as she considered their words. Natasha's reaction in the jet was starting to make a little more sense to her now, the woman had clearly been shocked to learn that she didn't know literal combat from her time during the war. And what she did know, Natasha apparently did not think it was enough.

"...I'm not sure how I feel about this," Olivia murmured, though the tone in her voice made it clear to the others that she wasn't finished speaking, but was still trying to gather her thoughts.

On the one hand, she appreciated their gesture, the fact that they were concerned enough about her to take the time out of their day to want to teach her to fight meant a lot to her. On the other hand, she felt like it was almost just a bit of an insult to Steve, that perhaps they thought he wasn't good enough to protect her, that may be Natasha also blamed Steve for the minor injury she had sustained when getting Loki back from Thor.

But, then again, she could understand where they might be coming from. They were both women very skilled in combat in their own right, it would make sense that they wanted to share their knowledge. But, on a more personal level, she truly didn't feel comfortable learning how to fight in general.

"Why do you want to teach me that?" maybe if she could understand more of their reasons for wanting her to know, she could understand a little bit better if she would be willing to learn.

Maria and Natasha looked at each other, seeming actually surprised that she had asked. whether it was because it was a sign she wasn't truly on board with learning or they were surprised she was questioning their decision she didn't know, but Natasha dropped her arms and moved to sit beside Olivia on the bench.

"Look," Natasha began, "I get that it's a really different time than what you're used to. But women can do, and are expected to do, more than they've ever done before. We don't have to hide behind men and let them fight our battles for us, we can fight them just as well."

Olivia nodded slowly at that, "But you were piloting the jet," she reminded Natasha, "You didn't engage in the battle either," and she looked over at Maria, "And you don't run SHIELD, Fury does..."

If it hadn't been for the way she had said it, Natasha was quite sure she would have been very insulted and angry with Olivia's words and the implication behind them. But the girl seemed genuinely confused and spoke without any sort of malice or taunt in her voice. Taking a moment to actually consider her words, Natasha could understand why she was confused. Here she and Maria were, talking about how women could be their own people and fight their own battles, and yet she _hadn't_ fought Thor or Loki, she had piloted the jet. And while Maria wasn't the director of SHIELD, she was Fury's right-hand woman. But to someone from the 1940s, she could understand how it might appear more like Maria something of a more advanced form of secretary.

"You and Steve didn't know how to pilot the jet, I did," Natasha explained to her. autopilot could be engaged for her part of the flight sequence when they were steady in midair, but not when they were approaching their target.

"And whenever Fury can't, I _do_ run SHIELD," Maria added.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend..." Olivia began, a flush of embarrassment on her cheeks.

She _did_ know that many women were far more independent than they had been in the 1940s, it was something glaringly obvious to her just in how they held themselves outside and what she observed of them whenever Steve and her would go on walks or sit in cafes and just look around. She had honestly thought that Natasha operated in the form of an assassin the same way Peggy had a spy. That it was something done in the background, something done a good deal away from the fighting, but she was starting to realize she may have gotten that wrong.

"What if you and Steve got separated," Natasha offered instead, trying to phrase it a different way, "And you had to face an enemy all by yourself, what would you do?"

"Or if he got injured and you had to protect him," Maria added, "If you don't know how to fight..."

"I understand," Olivia cut in, not even wanting to think of a situation like that, where Steve was too injured to defend himself.

But she could understand where they were coming from now, it wasn't that they were trying to turn her into a soldier, they were actually looking out for what happened if the soldiers fell. There was nothing wrong with being a soldier, Steve was a soldier and she loved him very much, the Commandos and Bucky were soldiers and they had become like family to her, Michael had been a soldier and he was as good as a brother. Her reluctance was something she had difficulty explaining to other people, something she hadn't had to explain to anyone when Dr. Erskine's experiment was taking place.

In 1945, she knew her place, she knew her role, she knew her responsibilities and the expectations placed on her. She knew her duty. As a Medic, help people who had fallen, who were injured, get them somewhere safe. As a woman, stay away from the front lines, do everything she could for the war effort without endangering herself. Peggy had always been a staunch supporter that women could be just as helpful, and had proven herself to be. This was a different time, this was a time where women had grown to be so much more than they were, they could do more, they could _be_ more, just as Natasha had said.

But she didn't know what _she_ could be, and perhaps that was something of the problem. There was no war, she couldn't be a medic in the field of battle, SHIELD would not allow her to go to any of the wars still being fought. And she understood, being an experiment herself, being what she was, she was too great an asset to SHIELD to risk like that. She had no formal education in terms of medicine, she couldn't be a nurse or a doctor without the right credentials, not without many more years of education. Which didn't help her in the _now_.

All she had ever known was of her old life. There was no way for her to return to that and she knew she couldn't keep being the same person she had always been, but it felt like if she could just hold on to being a medic, she would at least have a purpose.

What Natasha and Maria were planning...she didn't know if she could do it.

"Let us at least show you the basics," Maria offered, seeming to sense the true reluctance Olivia was feeling about all of this, "And then we can go from there."

Olivia looked between the two women before giving a small nod, she could at least try.

~8~

Steve wandered the ship, looping around it at least twice, looking for something, anything, to do to distract himself, but all the SHIELD agents were at work, Fury was busy directing the troops, Natasha and Maria were with Olivia, and the only other people on board were Loki and Thor, Thor was busy speaking to Phil and he was not about to turn to Loki for company. The only ones left were Tony and Bruce. While he wasn't very keen to have to speak with Tony, let alone be in the same room as him, right now he would take even Tony's animosity over the way he was feeling. Ever since Olivia had been pulled away by Natasha he felt like he was on the razor's edge of a panic attack, he needed something to distract himself even if it was arguing with Tony Stark.

So he made his way towards the lab that Bruce had set himself up in, walking in right when Tony appeared to poke the man with a miniature cattle prod. Of all the stupid, careless...

"OW!" Bruce let out a cry, and Steve picked up his pace, almost fearing that the Hulk would take form.

Tony, for his part, looked completely disappointed and let down that the Hulk didn't appear, "Nothing?"

"Hey!" Steve called out as he approached, glaring at Tony, "Are you nuts?"

"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you?" Tony ignored Steve to focus on speaking to Bruce instead, "What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve demanded.

"Funny things are," Tony shrugged easily.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship _isn't_ funny," Steve had to clench his hands into fists to keep from reaching out and grabbing Tony by the shirt to make his point even clearer. All it was serving to do was remind him exactly why he didn't like it when Olivia wasn't beside him. If Tony had succeeded in bringing out the Hulk and the man went on a rampage, it could tear the base apart and Olivia wasn't there and he wouldn't be able to protect her. He didn't even know where she was! He took a breath, trying to calm his thoughts, trying to reassure himself that Bruce had not turned into the Hulk, that Olivia was still safe, as was everyone else on the ship. But it didn't do much to ease the edge he had been feeling since he lost sight of Olivia, it was just making him even more tense and short-fused, "No offense, doctor," he added after a moment.

"No, it's alright," Bruce reassured him, "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

"You're tiptoeing, big man," Tony shook his head at Bruce, "You need to _strut_."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve reminded him.

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why _now_? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

Steve frowned, "You think Fury's hiding something?"

"He's a _spy_. Captain, he's THE spy. His secrets have secrets," he pointed absently over at Bruce, "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

"Uh..." Bruce tried to backtrack, "I just wanna finish my work here and..."

"Doctor?" Steve looked over at him. While he didn't think Tony took this seriously enough to warrant showing concern for the things Tony was wary of, Bruce had at least expressed more of a maturity, if HE was worried about this then it might be something to note.

Bruce look between the two men, clearly not wanting to get in the middle of it, but, true to Tony's words, he HAD been having some concerning thoughts, "'A warm light for all mankind,'" he repeated, "Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it."

"Well, I think that was meant for you," he pointed at Tony, "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"The Stark Tower?" Steve began to recall. It was the building he had been sketching when he and Olivia had been in the cafe. He wondered, if he had known what building it was then, if he would have bothered drawing it or let Olivia keep the doodle, "That big, ugly...building in New York?" he changed the course of his wording when Tony shot him a look.

"It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?"

"That's just the prototype," Tony agreed, "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now."

Bruce nodded at Tony, "So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files."

Steve shook his head and turned face Tony, alarmed with how casually he'd spoken of hacking SHIELD, "I'm sorry, did you say..."

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide," he held out a bag to Steve, "Blueberry?"

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?"

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?" Tony scoffed, "Historically not possible."

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."

"Following is not really my style."

"And you're _all_ about style, aren't you?" Steve might have felt a little bad about how his words had clearly struck a nerve with Tony, had it not been for the unnecessary and unwarranted words Tony had spoken to him just after Olivia had been injured.

"Of the people in this room, which one is: A. Wearing a spangly outfit, and B. Not of use?"

"Steve," Bruce cut in, seeing Steve about to respond in kind, "Tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"

Steve considered it for a moment, but shook his head, "Just find the cube."

"You're asking the wrong person, doc," he heard Tony remark to Bruce as he turned to leave, "Olivia's his commanding officer, you want him to do anything you have to get to her."

Steve's jaw clenched at the mention of Olivia, of how Tony was talking about her. He had thought he'd been lucky to get through that conversation without Tony bringing her up. Apparently not.

He shook his head and strode into the hallway. But even as Tony's words about how there was something wrong with this whole situation played over his mind, it was actually something Olivia had said to Bruce that had gotten him thinking more on the subject. She had told Bruce she would rather get to know a person based on themselves rather than what others had to say about it.

He and Olivia hadn't been an official part of SHIELD, they didn't know how the organization operated any longer, what might have changed from within. Just because Fury had helped them when they first came out of the ice didn't mean they should trust him implicitly. If he wanted to know more about the situation, he shouldn't take someone else's word for it, he should figure it out himself.

So, with that in mind, he turned and made his way down the hall, heading for the hull...

~8~

"This isn't going to work if you don't try," Natasha sighed for what felt like the hundredth time since she and Maria had begun to give Olivia lessons on the basics of fighting. No one was expecting her to become a super soldier with high combat skills instantly, but they were at least expecting something better than this.

"I'm trying," Olivia told them, lowering her fists from where they had been raised.

"You're really not," Maria argued, having been observing from the side in order to help instruct Olivia on better stance or form as she went.

"I know you've got super strength," Natasha continued, "You've got to _use_ it. When you're in a fight, when you're in a battle, you need to use every advantage you have. You can't hold back."

"I don't want to hurt you," Olivia blurted out, running a hand through her hair, feeling very tense and stressed right now.

"And while that's great, when you're actually fighting an enemy they're not going to care, they're going to want to hurt you and worse."

"Isn't there something else I could do," Olivia began to pace slightly, feeling more on edge, "You said you didn't fight Loki because you were flying the jet, can I learn how to fly the plane jet?"

Maria frowned as she observed Olivia, hearing something else in her words than what she was saying, "You really _don't_ want to fight, do you?"

It just seemed so strange to her and Natasha that a woman like Olivia, with all of the super strength and agility and endurance that Captain America had, would be so reluctant to actually enter battle. She should have been willing and ready to use all of her strength to keep people safe, and that would mean fighting for them. But here she was, trying to find every reason to avoid the fight.

Natasha seemed to realize what Maria had, that there must be something more going on here than just a 1940s mentality. From what the files said, Olivia's best friend in the world was one of SHIELD's best agents, someone who was skilled in fighting and weaponry. The girl clearly knew it was possible for women to do all that, it couldn't just be a thought that men should fight and women should stay behind. If the girl truly believed that, she wouldn't have been a medic, she wouldn't have fought so hard to have a hand in the war. She wouldn't have been putting herself on the field of battle to get the injured off of it if she didn't think women should be part of something like that.

So what was it? She clearly didn't appreciate the thought of Steve getting hurt in the course of trying to protect her. She clearly didn't like the idea that someone would be so hurt they'd be defenseless. And she clearly displayed a desire to protect other people...but there was something else holding her back.

"Why?" Natasha asked, "You've got to give us _something_."

"We might be able to figure out something else," Maria offered, "But we need to know where the issue is."

Olivia looked up for a moment, before sighing, "I told you," she closed her eyes, "I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to hurt anyone," her voice cracked slightly as she looked at them.

"Look..." Natasha begin with another sigh.

"No, _you_ look," Olivia cut in, "You don't understand, neither of you could _ever_ understand and I don't want you to, because I wouldn't wish the means of understanding on anyone," she took a breath, "Almost my entire life I have been in pain. I have been poked, prodded, cut open, on almost every kind of medication. I have been weak, and ill, and hurting _all_ the time," her voice broke, "I don't want to reduce anyone else to that life."

"Major Williams," Maria began to shake her head, actually feeling affected by the pure emotion in Olivia's words, the tears she could see gathering in her eyes.

"That's just it," she continued, "Major Williams. Medic of World War II. Neither of you have ever seen a war like I have. I would never wish you to either, because _it is hell_ ," she had to cut herself off at the last word, needing to catch her breath, "You see the footage of the soldiers fighting and that's all you ever hear about, the soldiers fighting, or the soldiers recovering in hospital, or the soldiers who died. But no one _ever_ talks about the people who got them off that field. I have seen men with their inside spilled out, I have seen men with their limbs torn off, I have seen men's brains littered on the grass," she was shaking even as she tried to get her words out, wanting them to understand why this was so hard for her, "I tried my hardest to _save_ them, to _help_ them. _That_ was my job, that was _my duty_ , to help not to harm. You asked why I don't want to fight? I have seen what is left after the fight is over. I _don't_ want to cause that."

She turned away from them, her hands on her forehead as she tried to gather herself again. It was always hard to talk about what the war was like. She always tried to keep a positive attitude, to care about other people more than herself, she had _always_ been like that. Even when she had been in the hospital and it had been _her_ life and _her_ health on the line, she _never_ wanted Peggy or Michael to be sad or worried about her.

She had saved _so many_ lives during the war, but for as fast as she was and as strong as she was, there were some men who were just gone before she could even get to them. And she had to see the aftermath of it. She knew Steve had so many nightmares about leading the battles, about the explosions and the bombs and the gunfire. She had nightmares of the people she couldn't save, the bodies that littered the battlefield, the state they were in. She saw what fighting could do and she knew with her strength she could cause that level of harm, she could kill a man with a single punch and she hated that. Her skills, her strength and speed were supposed to be for saving people and helping the fallen, not inflicting that same damage on another.

Help not harm, it had been the lesson she had _always_ lived her life by. Because she had just been hurt her entire life, and she had seen so many other people hurt, she didn't want to inflict it. Because she knew, with her strength and her agility and all the other reasons Natasha and Maria had for why she should fight, that she could do so much more damage with it.

And it _scared_ her.

What would she become if she turned her back so fully on who she was that she began to use her strength to harm others?

The only person who knew how she felt was Steve. He was the only one she had ever talked to about it. Did Natasha and Maria honestly think that Steve had _never_ tried to teach her how to fight or defend herself? That he hadn't had the same exact concerns they had? That if she had been separated from him or someone else had been injured or she found herself captured that she wouldn't be able to defend herself? He worried about that more than anyone because she didn't know how to fight and while she knew she should, it was hard to bring herself to learn. All she kept imagining was the wounds of those on the battlefield and knowing she could inflict that same damage on her own, she lived in utter terror what it meant to fight. Because during the war, it had been to the death.

Maria and Natasha where silent, giving her the illusion of privacy as she tried to pull herself back together from her minor explosion. They looked over at each other for a moment, before nodding their heads and slowly approaching her as the girl was standing there, now hugging herself, her breathing just a little shaky as she tried to reel herself in.

"This isn't the war," Natasha began cautiously, choosing her words carefully, "You're probably never going to be in another War like that again."

"There won't be any injured soldiers for you to pull off the battlefield," Maria continued, "But there WILL be civilians, who could end up injured if the enemy isn't dealt with in time."

"The duty of a medic is to treat wounds and casualties and care for those whose lives are in danger."

"You can keep them from ever being injured in the first place, if you can fight the enemy and stop them yourself."

"And we can teach you ways that will incapacitate them without killing them," Natasha promised her, finally realizing what Olivia's true issue was, a fear that 'to fight' meant 'to kill' because of her strength, "You can knock them out to be rounded up later, you _don't_ have to cause them a fetal injury just fighting them."

"You don't even need to have a gun" Maria offered too, "Just...give us a chance to show you how."

Olivia took a breath and turned to face them, looking between the two women who seemed genuine about their offer. She had been so afraid that, when they would teach her to fight it would be to teach her how to kill and hurt, to act as a soldier and take the enemy's life. She didn't think that SHIELD saw it as an option to merely incapacitate the enemy instead. But here was a woman, second-in-command of SHIELD, promising her that it was so. And here was another woman with the skills to kill a person, but showing her there were other ways to take down an opponent than just that.

Maybe there was a compromise that could be made, she had learned to control her strength in every day life, maybe she could learn to control it amidst a fight and attack as well.

And so she gave them a short nod.

~8~

Steve made his way into a secure storage unit in the hull of the base, using all of his might to slide a heavy iron door open and carefully walk in. It was his experience that the most important secrets were kept behind the thickest door. The room beyond was what appeared to be a large warehouse filled with metal crates all stacked on top of each other. He looked around, seeing a catwalk that went just above one of the stacks, and jumped up as high as he could, grabbing onto the edge of it and pulling himself up. He maneuvered himself closer to the edge of the catwalk, crouching down just on top of one of the crates, and leaning over to yank the top off.

He tensed, his jaw clenching with anger as he saw what rested within...

~8~

"Holy shit..." Natasha let out as a groan when her body slammed against the mat of the training room...quite a few feet away from where Olivia was standing.

"Sorry!" the woman called.

"Again," Maria murmured, shaking her head more in amusement than irritation, "You don't have to apologize every time you hit an enemy."

"I know, but Natasha is _not_ the enemy," Olivia told her, walking across the mat and reaching out a hand to help Natasha to her feet.

The training was going well, from what she could tell. Natasha and Maria both seemed pleased with her progress. They were teaching her the basics, how to punch, how to kick, to duck and block. Natasha appeared very happy with how quickly she was picking it up. But, while she hadn't had much of an active role in using moves such as the ones they were teaching, it didn't mean she hadn't been observing the Commandos and Steve during every battle they ever had. Just because she didn't use the skills she knew didn't mean she didn't know them.

And with her strength and speed and agility, she picked things up remarkably fast. They had even moved on to how to hit an enemy to send them the furthest distance away from you. She did make sure to hold her strength back, not wanting to hurt Natasha, or Maria when they swapped places, but she knew if she used her full strength against an enemy, for instance this Chitauri army from outer space, it would send them even farther away.

"Thanks, Liv," Natasha murmured as she was helped up, winding her arm slightly to get the feeling back in it as she had landed on it quite hard.

Olivia paused for a moment, looking over at Natasha, "Liv?"

Natasha wasn't thrown by the question, "Yeah. That ok?"

Olivia considered it a moment, glancing between Natasha and Maria, thinking on how the two women had stepped up and wanted to help teach her how to fight, wanted her to be more than what she had been, but had still understood her issues and adapted to make it something more comfortable for her.

"Only if I get to call you...Tasha," Olivia stated.

This time it was Natasha's turn to give her an odd look, "Most people call me Nat."

"Most people call me Olivia," she countered, subtly telling Natasha that she didn't often let people call her 'Liv,' but not outright telling her she couldn't.

This time Natasha considered it, "Tony call you Liv?"

"Not as yet."

Natasha smirked, knowing that would really irritate Tony if SHE had the privilege of calling Olivia that when he didn't, and held out a hand, "You got a deal."

"Looks like we're going to have to cut this short," Maria called over, stepping closer to them with one hand by her ear, having gotten a call from Fury over the comm. system, "Fury needs you for a little interrogation," she told Natasha.

Natasha let out a mock suffering sigh, "A woman's work is never done. And speaking of," she continued as Maria led them out of the room, "Weapons. Thoughts?"

"Well she's ambidextrous," Maria began to think out loud, considering how quickly she'd picked up attacks with her weaker arm and what weapons were specific to one armed combat or two.

"But can't be close enough for real hand-to-hand, Cap would kill us if an enemy got _that_ close to her."

"Also can't be long range," most long-range weapons tended to be lethal.

"Non-lethal too," Natasha caught on.

Maria nodded, before glancing at Natasha, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"It might need a touch more," Natasha nodded herself, "Think Coulson can get his hands on that FF-03 prototype?"

Maria smirked, "For her? He'd steal it himself."

"Um, not to interrupt," Olivia spoke up, "But...do I want to know?"

The two women just started to laugh.

A/N: Hmm...seems Olivia might be getting a weapon of her own, I wonder what it'll be? :)

But I cried writing her little breakdown :( I hope it sort of explains why Olivia has chosen to stay in the background for so long when it comes to physical fights. She's truly scarred from seeing so much destruction during the war, all those injuries :( And even though most were created by guns and other weapons, she's terrified that she'd end up creating the same damage to another person. Especially in the heat of battle when she can't control her strength or put that much focus to that :(

Steve went into battle fully intending to use his strength to fight the enemy. Olivia went into battle to use her strength to help the injured. So it's taking a lot for her to try and work out a way to balance that 'not wanting to cause harm' mentality with knowing she might need to inflict some level of it when facing an enemy :( Steve might go into battle and understand lives might be taken, he's accepted that as part of being a soldier even if it haunts him later. Olivia did not sign up for that, she does not want to take a life, even her enemy's, she signed up to save lives.

Keep in mind, THAT was one of the main reasons Dr. Erskine chose Olivia, because she CARED, even about the enemy. So it's hard for her to find that line to walk between old-fashioned medic and combat medic in a modern sense. From what I know, there WERE medics during some wars who refused, outright _refused_ , to take an enemy life or carry a gun no matter what. Olivia is following something of that belief. She has been hurt her entire life, in constant pain, till the serum, only to be thrust into a war and forced to see the fallen. It's going to impact anyone :(

But Maria and Natasha seemed to finally understand her mindset and that they can't teach her in a manner the Black Widow might teach in, one that assumes she'll fight to kill or need moves that will kill an enemy. She might, MIGHT, be willing to fight if they can make sure she won't actually kill anyone, if they let her go out there with the understanding she will not be 'shooting to kill' so to speak. Her main role will ALWAYS be as a medic and her focus will always be on the injured, but if there are no injured she's coming around to the idea of fighting to prevent injury. If there are injured, I can't see her ignoring them just to keep fighting, she'd help first, fight after ;)

We may see her mentality on the fighting/killing grow or expand as the series goes on, but so fresh from the war, this is where she's at right now ;)

Also we're about halfway through the story! :D So don't forget to vote for a pairing name for Steve and Olivia on my profile :) I'm going to announce the winner when I post the last chapter of this story so we have a few more days yet ;)

Some notes on reviews...

Yup, it was definitely a lesson in combat ;)

I agree, they need to be able to function away from each other, though I feel like it's a bit understandable in this story given all they've endured. But I think by the end they'll be better able to handle being apart. I think a lot of Steve's anxiety comes from the knowledge Olivia doesn't know how to defend herself, which is slowly changing :)

I think part of Fury involving Olivia is Steve won't go if she doesn't ok the mission and he won't go without her, but also he's definitely expecting it to turn dangerous and ugly and assumes people are going to get hurt, in which case, a medic who is used to battle and war and as strong/fast as Olivia would be an asset and she'd do much better than a random doctor pulled into a warzone, because she's been in a warzone before. I think a part of him, maybe he doesn't even realize it, also sort of assumes the rest of the team would be enough general protection for her to do her medic job instead of needing her to fight beside them :/ I can understand the concern, I think Natasha and Maria are certainly going to work on making sure that won't happen ;)

They were totally holding hands when they were unfrozen :) I feel like Phil's initial reaction would be 'relationship goals' lol :)

Almost everything is prewritten, but depending on the day and chapter (and if I have another story being posted the same day, like today), it can take me some time to edit it to a standard I feel ok posting :)


	6. High Altitudes and Higher Tensions

High Altitudes and Higher Tensions

Olivia stood to the side of Maria as the woman spoke to Phil in a hallway of the base. Natasha had gone to interrogate Loki, and Maria had asked her to accompany her quickly before she returned to Steve. She had hoped that going with Maria would help her learn a little more about whatever weapon she and Natasha appeared to have picked out for her. She really wasn't comfortable with the thought of having _any_ kind of weapon on her, but from what she could tell of what they had been saying near the end, it seemed they really had taken into account how she felt about combat in general. It seemed like they really were trying to be considerate of her own personal beliefs and she hoped the women had found some kind of object for her to use that wouldn't push her past her boundaries.

If she had thought it would be as simple as overhearing Maria asking Phil to get this weapon for her, or whatever the FF-03 prototype was, it could never be that easy. Instead, Maria had begun speaking to Phil using what seemed like serial numbers or a categorizing system for the weapons SHIELD utilized. She was good at math, but it felt like there was absolutely no rhyme or reason to the numbers given to certain weapons.

Phil, to his credit, didn't quite seem surprised with the weapon being described to him. He was nodding along as though it made perfect sense that that would be the weapon she would use. She hoped it was another good sign that whatever it was would actually be something she would be willing to touch. Of all the people there besides Steve, Phil had appeared to be the one who understood her and her preferences more than anyone. He had designed a uniform for her that was perfect for her terms of simplicity, practicality, and modesty. He seemed to have researched the things she hadn't been fond of on her last uniform and even the trouble she had with her basic army garb, and went out of his way to make something for her that he hoped she would like. The fact that he seemed to think this was a fitting weapon for her at least reassured her somewhat.

"Do you think you can get it?" Maria was asking Phil when she brought up the FF-03 prototype, "Will it even work for this project?"

Phil nodded in consideration, and Olivia could tell his mind was already racing with ideas, "It would actually be perfect," he told them, "We've been trying to figure out which weapons we could have fixed the FF-03 to, and yours would actually be a great fit."

"Think you can get it for us before Agent Romanoff cracks Loki?"

Phil actually laughed at that, "If I know Agent Romanoff, she's probably already cracking him at the moment. But I have the clearance and the authorization, shouldn't take long to get it working," he smiled at Olivia, "It's about time you got a shield like the Cap."

"Is THAT what we've been talking about?" Olivia looked between them, not really sure why Maria wouldn't have just _said_ it was going to be a shield...though why would she have called it a _weapon_ then? While she knew Steve could use his shield as one when he hurled it like a discus, it usually was looked at as more of a protection.

"Not quite," Maria told her, "Not quite a shield."

"Then what is it?"

"It's..." Phil began, but Maria reached out to put a hand on his shoulder to quiet him, shaking her head. He started to nod instead as he realized, "A surprise. But I think it will suit you."

Olivia shook her head in a manner as though to say 'of course it is,' and let out a sigh, "If you say so. I trust your judgment, Phil."

"Why do you trust him but not Agent Romanoff or myself?" Maria asked, sounding mock-offended.

"Phil designed this," she gestured at her uniform, "And it really is wonderful, Phil, thank you so much for it," she moved to give him a hug to show her appreciation.

"Oh my God, this is happening," Phil's eyes widened as he muttered out those words. _Major Williams_ was _hugging_ him!

Olivia gave like chuckle as she pulled away, "You created something that did suit me," she paused as she heard her words, "Pun not intended, but still fitting. If you could design this, then I trust whatever you work on next will be something equally as wonderful."

"I won't let you down," Phil beamed at the praise.

Maria good-naturedly rolled her eyes at Phil's enthusiasm for the task. They had certainly been right, even if he hadn't had the clearance, Phil would have found some way to get his hands on the FF-03 just because it would be beneficial to Major Britannia.

"Speaking of letting down," Olivia eyes widened as she thought of something, "Your cards! I feel as though every time we try to sign them something comes up. If you have them on you, I can sign them right now."

"Yes!" Phil suddenly shouted, before clearing his throat and trying to play it cool, "I mean, yes, I would appreciate that, very much," he pulled a small deck from his pocket, handing them over to Olivia to look at as he began to pat himself down in search of a pen.

Olivia took a moment to look at the cards in question. It appeared he had only brought with him the ones that pertained to either her or Steve. There were quite a few of Steve, though she was rather surprised that there WERE, in fact, three cards for her. She smiled gently as she saw what they were. There was one of her in her military garb, the brown ones she and Peggy wore, though it was only from about her shoulders up. There's another one that had her shaking her head when she saw it was her standing in the uniform her country had designed for her to be paraded around in. And there was another one of her in just the basic army guard, the brown leathers that always seemed too big for her.

But it wasn't just those, those were the only three where it was JUST her. There were four others where she appeared along with others, five if she counted the one of her and Steve and all of the Commandos together. There was one of her and Peggy, her and Bucky, her kneeling by the bedside of a wounded soldier she had helped tend to in a tent.

The last one was the one that had her smiling the softest, it was a picture she didn't know anyone had taken, of her and Steve, just smiling at each other. It was clearly a private moment between the two of them, the emotion reflected on their faces and in their eyes as they gazed at each other said as much. Oddly, she didn't feel annoyed or irritated that the moment between them had been shared with others, as it actually reminded her of when a film crew had tagged along to get bits and pieces of her time with the Commandos and when she had been pulled close to the front lines. They had said that they really enjoyed catching the smaller moments between her and Steve and even those of the Commandos 'off-duty' because they gave the world hope and something to smile about in the darker times.

"I...um...pen," Phil looked as though he was about to turn down the hall to go find a pen when Maria cleared her throat and held one up for him. He quickly snatched it from her with a small thanks and held it out to Olivia, who chuckled but began to sign the cards.

"All of them or just..." she held up one, not sure if he wanted pen marks on on everything given how long it had taken him to collect.

"I can have more than one?" Phil seemed completely shocked by the fact that she would be willing to sign more than one card.

So Olivia laughed and made sure that she signed everything but the Commando card, the coloring was too dark to make out pen on and he wouldn't be able to see it. She held the cards back out to him along with the pen, "I can go see if I can find Steve, send him your way to sign the rest?"

"If it's not too much trouble," Phil spoke a little breathlessly as he looked down at the cards with wide eyes, touching them so gingerly and gently one would think they were a treasure.

Olivia gave him a nod, looking at Maria to give her one as well, before she turned to head down the halls in search of Steve. She missed him terribly, and she could really do with a hug after the small breakdown she had had with Natasha and Maria. Being around someone else going through the same as her made feel less alone and comforted.

"What?" Maria looked over at Phil when he made an odd choking noise, staring at one of the cards.

Phil just held it up, "We're friends!" Phil seemed inordinately pleased that Olivia had signed the cards in different ways, as Major Williams, as Olivia, as Major Britannia, but the one he was most excited about was the one where she signed it 'your friend Liv.'

"...I'm friends with Major Britannia..." Phil repeated, straightening as though there was a shock through his system, "...I think I need to go lie down."

Maria chuckled and shook her head, reaching out to pat him on the shoulder, "After you get her the FF-03," she reminded him, "She may be your friend, but you don't want to make the Captain an enemy if you don't get her a way to protect herself."

"On it!" Phil called as he turned and strode the opposite way down the hall, intending to do just that.

~8~

Steve stormed down the halls of the base, heading straight for the lab. He really hated to admit it, it was making his skin crawl to admit that Tony had been right, but he was also a man of honor. Tony deserved to know what was going on, as did Bruce, and what he had found in the hull of the ship was not something he could abide by. He hoped that he could get to the lab, show them what he had found, and that they could come up with some sort of way to confront Fury about all of it. But as he grew closer and closer to the lab he could hear more voices spoken within, Fury was already there.

"...been wondering the same thing about you," Tony was responding.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract," Fury chastised.

"We are," Bruce's voice reassured him, "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss," Tony agreed, and Steve could see just as he stepped into the lab the man turning a monitor to show Fury he had to finally hacked into all of the secret files SHIELD held, "What is PHASE 2?"

Steve had the answer to that in his hand, and so he threw what appeared to be an assault rifle powered by the Tesseract, reminding him far too much of the HYDRA weapons, onto a table, startling Fury, Bruce, and Tony into turning around. He was quite sure that the anger he felt burning within him at his discovery was displayed in every facet of his face and body language. Bruce actually took a step back.

"PHASE 2...is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons," Steve stated, looking to Tony, "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow."

He turned his attention back to Fury, an expectation on his face demanding an explanation for all of this. Since when did _SHIELD_ take a leaf out of HYRDA's book use the Tesseract to make the same weapons their enemy had made. There had been an entire war that proved why it was not a good idea to make weapons of such a sort. He and Olivia had almost given their lives to stop HYDRA from doing this, and now SHIELD had taken up the mantle?

He was giving Fury two minutes to explain himself before he went to find Olivia and get them off the base himself.

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract," Fury began to explain, though it sounded more to Steve like he was reaching for excuses, "This does not mean that we're..."

"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony cut in, moving the computer to show Fury the files he had right in front of him, all the plans SHIELD had for the weapons. The plans that showed how to MAKE them as opposed to how Fury was trying to spin it as though they'd just collected them over the years. As much as he didn't appreciate Captain America, he wasn't about to let the man be conned by Fury's words. Of everyone on that base, he and the two super soldiers were the only ones who actually knew the true damage that the Tesseract could do when powering weapons. His father had studied it in-depth, he knew almost everything about the Tesseract from his first hand notes. This was far too serious to let SHIELD to try to cover it up, "What were you lying?"

Steve shook his head at Fury, seeing the plans with his own two eyes, "I was wrong, director. The world hasn't changed a bit."

He and Olivia had nearly died to stop these weapons being used. He was NOT about to let SHIELD lead them to their death again. Just as he turned to leave the room, Natasha and Thor stepped in.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce demanded of the Black Widow.

Natasha fell seamlessly into soldier-mode, not answering Bruce's question but responding to the clear anger in his voice, "You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?"

"I was in _Calcutta_ , I was pretty well removed."

"Loki's manipulating you," she reminded them, she had only just finished her interrogation and informed them all that Loki meant to trigger Bruce and release the Hulk on the ship. Right now and it was her priority to make sure that didn't happen.

"And you've been doing what exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"SHIELD is what?" another voice spoke as Olivia stepped into the room, the smile that had been on her face from her brief meeting with Phil falling as she caught the end of that last sentence.

Steve immediately made his way to her side, "Exactly as he said," he told her, a grim quality in his voice.

"But you can't!" she shook her head, looking to Fury, "Have you learned _nothing_ from the war?" she began to shake her head, unable to help but think back to the bodies, to the fallen on the field, to all the destruction that the Tesseract powered weapons of HYDRA had done. And now SHIELD was doing the same thing?

Steve quickly wrapped an arm around her, knowing exactly where her thoughts had gone, his had gone there too.

"We fought an entire War that showed exactly why you should _never_ do such a thing," Olivia continued, though her one hand reached out to grip around Steve's arm for more support, "Why would you _ever_..."

"Because of him," Fury cut in, pointing a finger at Thor.

"Me?" Thor seemed stunned.

"Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet."

"But you're _not_ the _only_ people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve scoffed, if they had just left the cube alone none of this would be happening right now.

Thor seemed to be of the same mind, "You're work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A _higher_ form?" Steve shook his head at just thought of a war being _worse_ than one they had fought in.

"This is exactly why Dr. Erskine never shared his serum with any of you," Olivia told Fury, "Because you would have done the same thing. You would have used it to make soldiers and not cared about making the bad worse."

That was all she could think about, how grateful she was now that Dr. Erskine had never allowed his serum to fall into the wrong hands. Though she had never thought SHIELD would become the wrong hands. But if they could take the Tesseract and make the same exact weapons HYDRA had made, knowing the destruction that could come from it, she could only imagine what they would have done with the serum. She couldn't help but picture in army of Hodges, marching around and causing havoc instead of people like her and Steve who just wanted to help.

"He forced our hand," Fury continued to defend, "We had to come up with _something_."

"Nuclear deterrent," Tony scoffed, for once Steve could agree with the sentiment, "Cause that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?"

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep..." Steve began to speak.

"Wait, wait!" Tony cut in, "Hold on! How is this now about _me_?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

Olivia shook her head at the bickering between the two men, moving over to the screen that had the information on the SHIELD-made HYDRA weapons.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor began to speak.

But Fury rounded on him, "Excuse me, did WE come to YOUR planet and blow stuff up?"

"Did you always give your champions such mistrust?"

"They aren't champions..."

"Are you all really that naive?" Natasha huffed, "SHIELD monitors potential threats..."

But Bruce scoffed, "Captain America and Major Britannia are on a potential threat watch list?"

"We _all_ are."

" _Major Brtiannia_ ," Bruce repeated, gesturing to the least threatening of them all, trying to show how absurd that was.

"That is not your concern, doctor," Fury tried to cut him off.

The bickering and the arguing behind Olivia got to be so much that she couldn't even make out a single word each of them were saying, it was so jumbled and mashed together. She turned around to look at them, unable to tell who was even arguing with who.

She stuck her fingers in her mouth and made a loud, shrill whistling noise to silence them all, "If you are all quite finished!" she fixed them all with a firm look, "Thor," she turned to him, "Correct me if I am wrong, Norse mythology was not something I focused on, but Loki is an embodiment of mischief and strife yes?" Thor nodded, "Then what do you call this?" she gestured around at all of them, "Right now, we cannot afford to lose control of our tempers."

Thor snorted, "You speak of control, yet you court chaos."

"It's his M.O, like she said," Bruce spoke, trying to keep calm, agreeing with her words, "I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that _makes_ chaos. We're...we're a time bomb."

"You need to step away," Fury began.

But Tony wouldn't let up, going so far as to reach out and put a hand on Steve's shoulder just to irritate the man more, "Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?"

Olivia shook her head at his action, another stark difference between he and his father, her experiences with Howard were that he at least knew when to quit and when to be serious, when he was going too far.

"You know damn well why!" Steve snapped, shoving Tony's arm off him, "Back off!"

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Tony," Olivia cut in, moving to try and stand in between the two men, but they were nearly face-to-face so she could only stand by their shoulders and reach out with a hand on each of their chests to keep them from coming to blows.

"Big man in a suit of armor," Steve didn't back down though, "Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you."

"Steve!" Olivia huffed.

"Yeah, I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire," Tony said simply.

"Always a way out...you know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero?" Tony finally seemed to be affected by Steve's words, "Like you? You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!"

"Enough, both of yoU!" Olivia snapped, shoving her way in between them and pushing them both apart so they were at a full arm-length out on either side of her, "You," she turned to look at Tony, who seemed moderately surprised by how forceful her push had been, "Do not get to say such things about Steve. You weren't there, you didn't get to know him before the serum. _I_ did. And I can tell you _everything_ special about him comes from his heart first and foremost. And you," she turned to Steve, "You don't know his life, you don't know what he fights for, and you don't know the sacrifices he may have made in the past. You do not get to determine someone else's worth."

Her words to Bruce came back to her in that moment, how she preferred to get to know someone for themselves. And she realized she was guilty of not doing that. She had read about Tony, but instead of actually trying to get to know him for who he was and what made him tick, she had constantly been comparing him to his father. But as she spoke to Steve, she realized she _didn't_ know his story either, she didn't know his life, what made him who he was. And that wasn't fair to him.

"We all need to remain _calm_ ," she continued to speak, she could almost feel the tensions rising and the situation escalating.

Just because she didn't have any formal medical training didn't mean she didn't recognize what was happening. Hysteria could come in many forms, right now, with tension so high among a group of people in a small space, things could only get worse. _Someone_ had to keep a level head and keep everyone else from breaking. And she was the medic, it was her job to treat breaks.

"You people are so petty...and _tiny_ ," Thor laughed.

"You are _not_ helping," she called over to him.

"Yeah, this is a..." Bruce tried to laugh.

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort him back to his..." Fury began.

But Bruce cut in, "Where? You rented my room."

"The cell was just in case..."

"In case you needed to kill me, but you _can't_!" Bruce shouted, "I know! _I tried_!" they all fell silent at that, "I got low. I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out! So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk! You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

"Doctor Banner..." Steve spoke, stepping up, a little more in front of Olivia when he saw what Bruce was doing, why Fury and Natasha had their hands on their guns, "Put down the scepter."

Olivia looked around, seeing them all tense and on the defensive, while Bruce genuinely looked startled to find that he did have the scepter in his hand, not even seeming to realize he'd picked it up in the first place. So she stepped around Steve and moved forward cautiously, catching Bruce's eye as she reached out to gently take the scepter from him and place it back on the table it had been examined on.

A moment later one of the computers beeped and Tony stepped to it, "Got it."

"Sorry, kids," Bruce tried to smile at the others, "You don't get to see my little party trick after all."

"Was that the program to find the Tesseract or another hack?" Olivia looked at Tony.

"I'm pretty sure I wouldn't set something to beep and alert other people if I were trying to hack into a system," Tony muttered.

"You have located the Tesseract?" Thor straightened at that.

"I can get there faster."

"Look, all of us..." Steve began.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard," Thor argued, not even letting him finish, "No human is a match for it."

"Tony!" Olivia called as the man moved to leave, "You are NOT going alone."

"Really?" Tony scoffed, "Are _you_ going to stop me?"

" _I_ will," Steve stepped up to support her, "Put on the suit, let's find out."

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"No one is hitting anyone," Olivia called out as she stepped forward and over to Tony, "Loki has already proven himself to be clever and dangerous, he wouldn't have left the cube unprotected. If you go, you take a partner with you, or you go through me."

Tony laughed at that, "Through _you_?"

But the way he reacted to her words told her he wasn't going to actually fight her over this. While he appeared to have no issue fighting Steve, whether it was because she was a woman or something else, he didn't appear to want to go to battle against her.

Before Tony could continue speaking or Steve could step up to say something else, Bruce let out of started crying, "Oh, my God!"

Not even a moment later everyone was thrown to the ground in every direction as something happened to the ship. It was as though an explosion of some sort had gone off or something had rammed into the side of it. Olivia managed to pick herself up, quickly rushing to the nearest person, who happened to be Tony, to make sure he was alright, looking around at the rest of the room to see if anyone else had been injured in the attack. She could see Steve, Fury, and Thor, but there was an opening in the floor and she couldn't see Natasha or Bruce.

"Put on the suit!" Steve called over to Tony as he picked himself up.

"Yep!" this time Tony didn't hesitate to agree with the man as he turned to head out of the lab to go prep.

Olivia hurried over to Fury's side, seeing the man gripping at his middle and wincing. She quickly knelt beside him, reaching out with steady hand to lightly press against his middle, understanding, when he let out a small hiss, that his ribs had either been bruised or cracked.

But Fury ignored the pain, tapping the comm. device in his ear and calling out, "Hill?!"

Olivia looked at Steve as the man hurried over to help Fury to his feet. Over the comm. they could hear the sound of utter chaos coming from the Bridge. While Maria hadn't responded directly to Fury, they could still hear what she was saying to the other agents.

"Turn up that engine! Number 3 engine is Down! Can we get a run in? Talk to me."

"Turbine's loose," an agent spoke, "Mostly intact, but it's impossible to get out there and make repairs while we're in the air."

"We lose one more engine, we won't be. Somebody's got to get inside and patch that engine."

"Stark!" Fury barked out, "You copy that?!"

"I'm on it!" Tony replied back over the comm..

Olivia looked up at Steve, "A ship this size, he's going to need help."

Steve nodded, understanding what she was saying, a turbine the size that would be needed to lift this craft into the air would be more than what the Iron Man suit could probably handle. But that combined with someone with super strength, it might stand a chance.

"You help Tony," Olivia stated, "I go to the Bridge, it sounds like that was where most agents were, they could be injured."

Steve wasn't pleased that they would be splitting up once more, but if it was a choice between her being near a large spinning blade, or surrounded by other SHIELD agents to help protect her, he would pick the latter, "Be careful."

She smiled at him, leaning in and quickly kissing him, "Don't kill Tony," she said in response, before the two of them hurried out of the room, Olivia helping carry along with her.

Whatever had happened, it was clear that Loki had made his next move.

A/N: Coulson just keeps finding his way into scenes lol :) He's just so much fun to write, it breaks my heart to think of what happens to him next :(

I couldn't really see Olivia getting into arguments the same way the others did in the movie. She's spent her life being the one that makes sure others are ok and trying to keep things calm, that I couldn't see her just bickering that way. I felt she'd be more the one trying to get everyone focused. She did not like what Tony had to say about Steve, but equally Steve had said some hurtful things about Tony. So it was a pickle for her to try and call them out for what they both were doing while not trying to take sides :/

Some notes on reviews...

I agree. I think that's something to explore with Olivia, how it is good to know how to defend herself but that others need to respect how and when and IF she uses her knowledge. We all want to see powerful women kicking but, but not every powerful woman wants to. There are different ways to be powerful and important outside of violence or fighting, so it will be interesting to see how Olivia balances that and what her 'weapon' will be ;)

Lol, we'll actually see a bit of a 'girl's night' type thing in Ultron. There's quite a few hours before Tony's party ;) ;)

I look forward to the day Olivia and Strange can meet, hopefully Avengers 4 will help that happen ;) Or, you never know, will Olivia be deemed a 'criminal' in IW? Will she end up going with Tony into the ship? We'll have to wait and see :) But that is something that I really wanted to touch on. People see Olivia and think about how she was part of the Erskine experiments and assume it MUST mean she should be a fighter, that they don't really look at WHY Erskine picked her. With all the slack he would have gotten for picking a woman who would never have been allowed to fight in the war in the first place, WHY a woman and why her? He had his reasons, she proved what they were, others just need to accept it ;) But I agree, I can see quite a few similarities between her and Strange :)

Gotcha ;) I had so many movie-stories to update, since I'd missed posting nearer to when the movies came out, that I try to get them up sooner than my Lord of the Rings story. I aim for posting these movie-stories everyday, because I have about...8 more to go and I really want to get caught up by the end of the year lol :)


	7. Must Come Down

Must Come Down

Olivia could tell that Fury was _not_ very pleased with the fact that she was trying to help him walk down the halls of the base. But she was much stronger than she looked, and she would not relinquish her hold on his arm as she tried to support him and ease the pain in his ribs on the way. She carefully eyed any agent that they passed, making sure they weren't injured or if they needed her assistance more than Fury. But it appeared that, at most, there was a cut or scrape from where people had fallen during the initial crash. Fury appeared to have just landed in the wrong position.

But the man would not be stopped, he wouldn't even allow her to wrap his ribs quickly along the way, finally having huffed out that she could wrap them when they got to the Bridge but no sooner.

"Coulson!" Fury shouted into the comm. device in his ear, "Initiate official lock down in the detention section then get to the armory! Move out!"

That confirmed Olivia's suspicions that whatever was happening on the base at the moment had something to do with Loki. Whether it was a planned attack, using him as a location for where to strike next, or a rescue mission of some sort, it had something to do with Loki. It was probably too much to hope that the attack was an enemy of Loki instead of...

Olivia's step faltered for just a moment as she realized what this would mean. The only people who would be attempting to rescue Loki would be the ones he had compromised. The base might be about to be infiltrated by its own agents, perhaps even by Agent Barton. That would only serve to complicate matters so much more.

The moment the ship had been attacked, her mind had drifted for a brief second to the fighting lessons that Natasha and Maria had been leading her through. She could imagine they would see this as an opportunity for her to test what she had learned. But if those men who were about to attack them were actual SHIELD agents compromised by Loki, she didn't think she _could_. She had seen it in the war, when it came to attacks, it was shoot or be shot. If these compromised agents actually fired at any of the others on this ship, she didn't doubt their first reaction would be to fire straight back, no matter who they were firing at.

She could understand an enemy trying to attack because they fully believed in what they were doing, such as the HYDRA agents during the war. She could understand _they_ were the true enemy, that they would not be stopped, that they would die for their cause. But they had the _choice_ to. These men who might be invading had been compromised by Loki, they had been taken over and put under his control. In their right mind they would _never_ think to attack SHIELD the way they were.

This was not their choice and so she honestly didn't think she would be able to fight them with that knowledge in mind. She didn't know how the other agents would be able to fight them either. It wouldn't be fair to kill a compromised agent when it wasn't _them_ who was really doing the attacking, but what Loki was forcing them to do.

She had to wonder if Maria or Natasha would feel the same way, if they would try to save these agents or kill them on sight. When it came to Agent Barton, she couldn't imagine Natasha going so far as to kill him as opposed to try and bring him back. But it also wasn't fair that she should save him only because she had a personal connection to him and not try to save the other agent either. She didn't know this Agent Barton, but she didn't think that one man should have a special exception to all the others that had been taken over by Loki.

She shook her head, trying to push past the thoughts, push through allowing her personal beliefs to cloud her judgment. That wouldn't be fair to Natasha or Maria either. There was no saying that the people attacking _were_ compromised SHIELD agents, they could just as easily be enemies of SHIELD that Barton reached out to. They may not be controlled by Loki at all. There was a chance Barton would be the only one among them who _was_ a compromise agent. And she didn't know what Natasha or Maria would do, she didn't know if they would attack to kill or just to incapacitate. And it wasn't fair of her to think the worst of them, she needed to see what they did first. But whatever they did, it wouldn't affect what _she_ did. It would be _her_ choice whether she fought or how she fought.

Right now though, it would not be about fighting at all. If Fury himself could be injured in this surprise attack, there was no telling how many others were injured. Right now she wasn't a soldier, she wasn't a fighter, she wasn't an agent of SHIELD, she was a Medic.

With that in mind, she renewed her efforts, helping Fury along even faster as they finally made it to the Bridge, stepping in to see if it had descended into pure chaos, appearing even worse than what they had heard over the comm. only moments ago. Agents were running around, frantically trying to get everything under control, the helmsman especially appeared to be struggling a great deal.

"Bring the carrier inwards and head south!" Fury immediately began to take control, Olivia helping him over to the main control panel even if it was offline at the moment, "Take us to the water."

As soon as he was secured Olivia began to make her rounds around the room, checking on any agent that wasn't currently rushing around, for the only reason she could think that they wouldn't be trying to help at the moment was that they were too injured to do so.

"Why water?" the Helmsman asked, struggling to get the navigation system back online so he could try to move the craft where instructed, "Navigations recalibrated after the engine failure."

"Is the sun coming up?!" Fury snapped, seeming completely done with how a Helmsman didn't know how to navigate without a navigation system.

"Yes, sir."

"Then put it on the left! Get us over water! One more turbine goes down and we drop."

"Sir, it's up!" Maria called, managing to get a handful of the monitors working once more, Fury making his way over to them to try and see the state of the rest of the craft.

Olivia knelt down beside a SHIELD agent who was gripping his left arm, quickly checking his mobility and feeling around the top of the shoulder, "Brace yourself," she ordered the man quickly, before moving beside him and getting the proper grip to push the shoulder back into its socket. She spared another moment to gently massage the man's arm slightly, asking a few short questions to make sure they weren't injured anywhere else before she moved on to the next person. She knew, in any other situation, she would do more, she would try to assist the person more thoroughly, but in a case like this she could feel her medic training kicking in. Stabilize, stabilize first, make sure they can last till the battle is over or more help is had.

"We need a full evac. on the lower hangar bay," Fury shouted.

"Any injured?" Olivia called back, even as she focused on another agent, shining a small pen light in both the woman's eyes to make sure she didn't have a concussion as the gash on her head might indicate, but she seemed alright for the moment.

"No reports," Fury replied.

Olivia nodded and stood, looking over to the other end of the room and making her way over there, closer to the door they had entered through. She could see Maria heading for the door as well, clearly moving to assist with the evacuation. She heard a small clicking noise, as if something were clattering or bouncing on the ground, and looked over at the same time Maria saw a grenade slide into the room.

"GRENADE!" Maria cried out.

Olivia was already running towards it, faster than almost anyone could blink, and kicked the grenade back towards the door just a moment before it went off, grabbing Maria and turning to brace her down on the ground, using her own body to block whatever remnants of the blast were coming through the door. She put a hand over Maria's head to keep her down when a gunshot went off over her head, and peeked up to see Fury firing his weapon at the open entrance. Keeping low, she began to move Maria back towards the main keep, so that the woman could get up and use some of the monitors for cover. The other agents appeared to have ducked as well, though the ones able to get to their weapons quickly raised them in preparation.

Fury made his way towards the entrance, stepping just to the side of it and waiting, it took longer than he thought it would, but eventually a handful of men entered the room, weapons drawn, however they looked quite worse for the wear given the fact that their grenade had gone off in their territory instead. He would have to thank Olivia for her quick thinking, for it had slowed the men down considerably, allowing him and Maria a chance to take these men out.

"Warn the others!" Olivia shouted to one of the agents nearest her, if these men had managed to make their way into the Bridge, the most secure area of the ship, it could only mean there might be others working elsewhere. She glanced back at the invading men, swallowing past a lump of guilt that had formed at the realization she had kicked a grenade at them. But none of the men appeared truly injured which she had been counting on. If they threw it into the room, they had to be far enough away to avoid the blast. She had been aiming to slow them, not kill them, which she had.

"We got perimeter breach!" the man quickly shouted into is comm., "Hostiles are in SHIELD gear. Hold on to every junction."

Olivia quickly looked over to her left when a man who had tried to fire his weapon was knocked down by the enemy fire. More men appeared to enter the room after the ones Fury and Maria had dealt with. She kept low and quickly scuttled her way over to the fallen man, checking on his injury, but luckily it appeared that the bullet that had sent him falling had only grazed his right shoulder and not lodged itself into his flesh. So she quickly got to work treating the wound, keeping her senses and attention open to everyone else around her should they get injured too.

With every careful glance up that she made away from her patient, she could see that SHIELD agents were clearly very well trained, firing with an efficiency she had only seen from Bucky during the war.

"Sir!" the same man who had warned the others of the breach shouted out to Fury, getting a report over the comm., "The Hulk and Thor are in shuttle levels 2, 3 and 4!"

"Sir, the Hulk will tear this place apart!" Maria warned.

"Get his attention!" he ordered.

"Escort 606!" Maria called over her comm., "Proceed to 270. Don't get too close!"

"Copy!" the escort came back.

Olivia helped the fallen agent to sit up, looking around to see if any others had been injured in the firefight, when she noticed something odd. The gunfight seemed to have lessened, slowing down, the agents around her still at arms and ready to fire, but when she managed to look up more towards the door she could see that the men entering were coming in at a slower pace, easily taken down just by Fury. She frowned when she saw that, the men didn't even appear as though they were going to fight when they stepped into the room, their guns drawn yet not even aimed.

Fury seemed equally as confused, "They are not getting through here, so what the hell..."

Olivia heard a whistling noise, the sound of a string snapping, and looked up, seeing an arrow coming from somewhere above them. She grabbed the nearest object she could find, a clipboard and hurled it up into the air. She hoped her math skills hadn't gotten rusty in her time on the ice, she was trying to anticipate the speed of the arrow, the direction, and the proper angle to throw the clipboard in very little time. She hadn't quite managed it as exactly as she had hoped, but the clipboard managed to, pun still not intended, clip part of the arrow and send it flying in a different direction, towards the ceiling.

Where it exploded.

She quickly hurried her way up the small steps of the Bridge, trying to get closer to Fury and Maria, trying to see exactly where the arrow had come from. Fury had just turned to look at her, making his own way to try and aim his gun better at where Barton, for clearly it could only be him, must have been standing. He looked at her for just a moment, to nod his head in thanks, before Olivia tackled him to the ground as another arrow was fired right at him, a multi-tipped arrow that ended up lodged in the command desk, right above a USB port. Fury rolled over, firing his gun in the direction Barton must have been, but there was no one there any longer.

Olivia helped him up, Maria already running towards the command computer, where the arrow seemed to have activated itself and inserted something into the USB port, hacking into almost every single monitor and mainframe. Maria had just managed to pull the arrow out when the ship lurched to the side, alarms going off.

"Sir, we've lost all power in Engine 1!" one of the agents reported.

"It's Barton," Fury shouted into the comm., "He took out our systems. He's headed for the detention level. Does anybody copy?"

"This is Agent Romanoff," Natasha's voice rang out, "I copy."

"Stark, we're losing altitude!"

"Yeah," Tony scoffed over the comm., "Noticed."

Olivia moved over to one of the monitors, trying to see if anyone through the ship had been injured by the sudden tilting of it. Only for her eyes to widen when she caught sight of security footage. It seemed to have been backed up on a different system, and she could understand why, it was the detention room that Loki had been secured in.

Only he _wasn't_ secured there any longer, Thor instead was locked in the circular cage, with Loki making his way over to the control panel. He was saying something to Thor, his hand moving just above the button that would let the cage fall to earth, when one of the agents that was standing just the edge of the footage to guard Loki fell to the ground.

"Phil," she breathed.

The man was standing there, holding what was clearly one of SHIELD's new HYDRA based weapons, slowly approaching Loki to get him away from the controls. She couldn't hear what was being said, the audio seemed to have cut out, but the video footage was still there.

She gasped, her hands flying to her mouth when she saw the Loki in front of Phil disappear, another one behind him stabbing Phil through the chest with the scepter.

It wasn't until she found herself already running out of the Bridge and halfway down the hall that she realized she should have told Maria or Fury what she had seen. But she hadn't been thinking of that, she just saw Phil, an agent and a friend, being severely injured, far worse than any of agents she had seen on the Bridge. And she reacted. On the field of battle you didn't always have time to call out commands and call for help, you had to react and you had to act _fast_ , especially medics. Every spare moment was one where it could mean someone else's life or death.

Footage had still been playing, she was sure that Fury or Maria or some agent would have to notice, Loki had been the focus point of this attack. They would be looking at the monitor soon enough and they would send help, but she needed to get there _now_. An injury such as that would not be one easy to treat, nor easy to survive, but if she could just get there, if she could try to help, maybe she could do _something_.

She could barely recall the directions they had been given when they have been briefed in the command room, when they had gathered there before Loki had been brought to his cell. They had been shown exactly where the cell would be in terms of the blueprints of the base. Oddly enough, it had been in the event of there being an attack and one of them needed to get to Loki to secure him. She hoped she was going in the right direction and she tried not to feel too guilty about not stopping to help every single SHIELD agent that she happened to pass. But they were all stable enough, and Phil could be bleeding out on the floor right now, or worse if Loki had attacked him a second time.

She hadn't even realized she hadn't thought of a game plan for dealing with Loki when she reached the detention chamber. She skid almost into the doorway, having run faster than she could ever remember running, trying to get there in time. She nearly fell backwards when there was a whoosh of air, having arrived right as Loki hit a button that sent the cage falling out of the ship with Thor still inside it. But she quickly got her footing and got her breath back, rushing over to Phil's side, kneeling beside him, already slinging the medical pack off of her back. Not even having realized she hadn't taken it off, she'd been using things from her utility belt before. It was another testament to just how much thought Phil had put into her uniform that the pack rested so comfortably on her she didn't even notice it was there.

"You know I could crush you, don't you?" Loki spoke, and Olivia spared him only a glance up, before she ignored him, focusing on Phil's wound.

"She's...no threat...to you..." Phil panted, not wanting her to be attacked for trying to assist him, ignoring the light shushing noise she made to try to keep him quiet even as she gently maneuvered him to lie on the ground.

Loki made a noise that sounded a cross between a laugh and a scoff, "I'm all too aware of the fragility of your women," Loki sneered at her, "She has not the skill to face me down," he began to smirk as he watched her frantically trying to save the life of the man on the ground. He tilted his head, considering whether or not he should actually attack her, before he laughed, "Why should I attack her, when I can cause her a far greater pain?"

Olivia's jaw clenched as she pulled her jacket off to bunch up and place under Phil's head. She understood what Loki was saying. He wasn't going to attack her, not just because she wasn't worth attacking in his mind, but because he genuinely thought that Phil was going to die right in front of her despite her best efforts to save him. And it truly would be a greater pain to have tried so hard to save someone and failed than to try and attack someone else and not be able to land a blow.

Not all pain was physical.

Instead Loki merely waved his fingertips at them and turned to stalk out of the room.

"You're gonna lose," Phil weakly called out to the man.

"Save your strength," Olivia murmured, quickly tearing Phil's shirt open to more closely examine the wound, it wasn't gushing, which was a good sign that an artery hadn't been hit.

But Phil's words seemed to still Loki, for the man stopped in his path and turned to face him, smug, and gesturing around as though to say how am I losing right now, "Am I?"

"It's in...your nature," Phil spoke, before letting out a hiss of pain as Olivia washed out his wound with a saline solution from her pack, quickly using gauze to press down on the wound.

Loki still seemed quite amused for watching Olivia struggle to save the man, "Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky...where is my disadvantage?"

Phil panted as Olivia gently moved him just slightly to his side, enough to get a saline soaked gauze to press against the back of his wound as well, sucking in a deep breath when he was back on his back, "You...lack conviction."

"Phil, you need to stop talking," Olivia murmured to him, getting out more gauze and some medical tape, trying to dry a patch of his skin enough to try and close at least part of the wound. It was a difficult position right now, with Phil talking. On one hand, it was distracting him from the wound and the pain he must be feeling, it was keeping his focus away from it. But, on the other hand, him talking would also be expending energy that would be best saved.

"I don't think I..." Loki began, but Phil managed to maneuver the gun he was still holding to blast at Loki.

Olivia spared only a glance up to see what had happened, Loki had been to thrown clear through a wall behind him.

"...so _that's_ what it does," Phil murmured, finally relaxing his grip on the gun and resting back, as though he could finally just let himself be now that he had done his duty and tried to stop the enemy.

Olivia reached out and took the gun from him, throwing it behind her almost into the hallway she'd come from. She probably shouldn't have, if Loki decided to get back up and come after them, it would be best to have the weapon in their possession once more. But it was far, far too much like a HYDRA weapon and she couldn't bear to be that close to another one. She would be able to focus better on Phil without constantly having that gun in the corner of her eye.

And if Loki were smart, which he had proven he was, he would not enter the room another time and risk a second blast.

"Phil," she began, ripping a piece of tape with precision, trying to bind the wound at least closer together so she could apply more pressure without allowing any more blood to escape him, "Phil, I need you to focus on me ok."

"Ok..." the man managed to nod as he lulled his head to the side to look at her, knowing it was a distraction technique, knowing exactly what it was for, which didn't exactly help him ignore the fact there was a gaping wound in his abdomen, but appreciating the effort.

"Alright, you can say _one_ more thing and then no talking," she quickly put a liner of gauze over the tape she had managed to get stuck on to him. In any other situation, her first thought would have been to stitch the wound closed, however this was a much deeper wound and could require surgery of some sort, if any internal organs were hit during the attack. It would only cause him more pain to have his wounds stitched and then ripped open in surgery later, "Tell me something you want to know. About me, about Steve, anything that I can talk to you about."

Phil was quiet for a moment, as she got more gauze and began to apply pressure to the wound.

"Can the Cap really draw?"

Olivia let out a soft laugh at that, out of everything he could have possibly asked, he wanted to know about Steve's artistic ability. She had no idea how he knew that Steve tended to sketch and doodle when he had time to do it, she wasn't going to question Phil's methods of finding out, right now she would tell him just about anything he wanted to know to help distract him.

"He can," she began, "He's quite wonderful at it. The first time I ever saw a sketch of his was while he was touring around America and then into Europe, performing for civilians and soldiers. He was dressed in his first Captain America uniform, but he wasn't very happy. He'd been doodling himself as a performing monkey."

Phil let out a small chuckle before groaning in pain, and Olivia quickly applied more pressure to the wound.

Olivia bit her lip and turned as much as she could, maintaining the pressure with her left hand as her right rummaged through her pack for something she had seen but hadn't opened yet. She pulled out the small packet and ripped it open with her teeth. She began to flail her right arm about trying to get the object that was in the packet out without needing to release her pressure on Phil's wound. Finally she managed to do it, waving her arm a little bit more to expand the object in question.

A moment later she twisted back towards Phil, fanning the shock blanket over him, knowing that, with a wound like this, it would be imperative to keep him warm and not allow him to slip into shock. She managed to keep her one hand on his wound though, even as the blanket came to rest over it.

"He was always doodling stars on all of his reports and the notes he would take during the meetings," she continued to speak, trying her best to distract Phil and keep him alert, "He doodled just before we came here. He sketched a lovely architecture, just in front of Stark Towers. And you know what, Phil, if you keep your _eyes open_ ," she said a little more firmly when his eyes began to flutter shut, causing him to look at her once more, "I'll give you that doodle. I'll give you that sketch and even get Steve to sign it. You'll be the only person to have a drawing done by Captain America. Ok? Wouldn't that be amazing, something to add to your collection? But you can't do that if you go to sleep on me Phil. Do we have a deal?"

"Deal," he murmured, managing to crack a smile. She was relieved to hear his words weren't slurring.

"Coulson!" Fury's voice suddenly rang out from beside them, and Olivia looked over to see the director in the doorway, rushing over to them.

"Sorry, boss," Phil tried to speak, "They got rabbited."

"Just stay awake," Fury demanded, same as Olivia, "EYES ON ME!"

"No," Phil groaned, "I'm clocked out here."

"Don't you dare go back on our deal, Phil," Olivia told him, "I'll be very cross."

"Sorry..."

Olivia looked up at Fury, "I've got him as stable as I could, cleaned and partially sealed the wound, I've been applying pressure to it. But he'll need surgery and more blood, now!"

In that single moment, Fury knew he had made the right call in bringing in Major Williams to this mission. Anyone with a brain would think to ask Captain America to join, this was right up his alley. An enemy of Earth, danger to civilians, the Tesseract, a battle about to be fought in which a soldier would be needed. But he had gotten a quite a few words of opposition when he planned to bring in Major Britannia as well. She had no combat history, she hadn't _fought_ in the War, she wasn't a soldier, she was a non-combatant field medic. Everyone seemed to think that that was a detriment, or that that somehow made her useless.

But here she was, proving _exactly_ why he needed her on this mission. People were going to get hurt, people were going to get badly hurt, they were going to need a medic on the field. Because if they lost any of the specialists SHIELD had brought in for this mission, there would be hell to pay all across the world. They needed someone who had experience treating others in the heat of battle, they needed someone with medical experience, they needed someone who knew how to handle themselves when everything was going to shit around them. Many people overlooked Olivia Williams, but he knew exactly what she was capable of and exactly what role she would play...and right now it may mean the difference between losing one of his best agents or saving him.

You can't have a soldier on the field of battle without a medic there to pull him out of it.

Fury immediately called into the comm., "Agent Coulson is down. Detention room! NOW!"

"Paramedics are on their way," another SHIELD agent reported.

"It's ok, boss," Phil tried to speak, but his eyes kept fluttering again, "This was never going to work...if they didn't have something...to..."

"Phil!" Olivia shouted, reaching out to touch the side of his face, the move just enough for him to roll his eyes open once more and focus on her even while she applied more pressure to the wound with her other hand.

"They're here!" Fury reported into the comm. when a small team of SHIELD's Medical Division rushed into the room and swarmed around Phil. He got to his feet, stepping back, allowing them more access to the fallen agent as Olivia quickly gave them a rundown of his injury and her treatment..

He watched as they managed to get him onto a sort of gurney, Olivia going with them, still applying pressure...

And that was when he made his decision, tapping the comm. to open it once more across all channels, "They called it."

Olivia's head snapped over at those three words, a deep frown on her face, her mouth opening to tell the man that no, Phil was still alive, that he stood a fighting chance, but Fury just put a finger over his lips and shook his head.

"Phil Coulson is gone."

A/N: Coulson's ultimate fate will be revealed in the next chapter. Did he survive? :) Or was Loki's torture for Olivia correct and she failed to save him? :'( What will that mean for Olivia either way? O.O

I felt like that might be something Loki would do, he would want to torment Olivia instead of attack her. Someone as 'softhearted' as her would be devatated and broken to lose a man like Phil she was fighting so hard to save. In his mind, Coulson was going to die, there was no way one person could save him, so it was more darkly amusing to watch someone try and fail :(

But yay, Olivia's talents are shining through :) I feel like she could not have spent that much time around Steve with his shield and the Commandos with their guns without learning something about aim ;)

Some notes on reviews...

Oh I fully am yelling at Fury too...and someone else might yell at him in the next chapter too but I won't say who ;)

Olivia was able to reach Phil, not in time to prevent the wound, but she got there fast enough to treat it...but it was a severe wound, we'll have to wait and see if her efforts made a difference :(

I can understand that, I think Olivia is having a hard time trusting SHIELD as it is just after learning about them recreating HYDRA weapons :( But, at the same time, this is an organization her best friend helped build so I feel like she wouldn't want to write them off :/ I definitely think she and Steve are in line for rude awakening after rude awakening in just about every story to come, whether it's about the government or their own team :( But I agree, some very poor decisions in how to run things :(

I don't want to give away too much but let's just say I wouldn't have brought in Natasha and Maria taking Olivia under their wing or working out a weapon for her if she was always going to be just a side medic ;) I can understand that she hasn't changed much, but change doesn't happen overnight (or in the three days this movie seems set over lol) and she has a lot of personal beliefs and trauma from the war that she will have to work through first to be able to change more ;) We don't see much of it on the surface, because she tries to focus on other things, but it's always there and holding her back. Steve, in his own way, is trying to be understanding and supportive by NOT hounding her about learning to fight and respecting her beliefs, because it's something she needs to come to terms with first, so he tries his best to protect her and keep her safe in other ways. Being a medic will always come first to her, that's her calling, but she will begin to work on balancing that with active combat ;) We have 6-7 stories for her to do that in, it won't happen in just a single story :)

Phil is SUPER adorable. So it killed me to write this chapter :(

Olivia definitely gave her all to try and save Phil, we'll have to wait and see if she succeeded though ;) I've heard he was revived in the TV series, so it'll just depend on how much they need to do after this chapter to save him or if he'll still need to be revived ;) I've got the entire story prewritten so we'll find out very soon what Phil's ultimate fate will be ;) But thank you, I'm very glad you're enjoying the stories :D


	8. Falling Into Place

Falling Into Place

"Hello," Olivia said gently, smiling softly as Phil's eyes began to flutter, the man slowly waking up, "Gently now," she added when he seemed about to try and sit up, reaching out to place a hand lightly on his shoulder to keep him resting, "Easy. Your body's had quite the trauma. It may take awhile to heal fully, but you'll make a full recovery, I'm sure of it."

It had been quite the terrifying moment, when the medical team had managed to get Phil to their division and begin working on him. But SHIELD was nothing if not advanced, and though it felt like mere moments to her, it had been much longer when he had finally been stabilized. From what she understood, Fury had informed the others that she was treating people in the infirmary, any SHIELD agents who had been injured where to go there so she could help assist. It was the only way Fury seemed able to keep Steve from barging in. If she was on duty and doing her duty, there was a higher chance she wouldn't be disturbed. And while she didn't appreciate Fury actively wanting to keep the others away, it at least had given her time to make sure Phil would be alright.

Phil's face scrunched as he looked up at her though there was a small quirk to his lip, "Well, I'll be..." he murmured, Olivia moving to help him take a small sip of water.

She was honestly shocked that he had woken up so soon, but Phil was a strong and healthy man to start with, and, according to the other medical professionals, if she had been even a minute later than she had been, she would be looking down at a corpse right now. Her quick action had saved his life.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I thought they were lying..."

"Who?" she continued, trying to be cautious in the questions she asked, it was clear in how he slurred his words just a little that he was a bit loopy from the morphine.

"The reports," he said, "They all said it was an angel. But it was _you_."

Olivia opened her mouth to ask him what he was talking about, when the old man in Germany, his words, came back to her. The man had said his brother claimed an angel had taken him off the field and protected him, saved his life. Apparently he wasn't the only one to describe it as that if these reports Phil was talking about were what she thought they were. It made sense, in a way, she was the ONLY female medic on the field during the war, any soldier would be a little shocked to see a woman come to help him.

"They were right," he finished.

"I'm no angel," Olivia reached out to take Phil's hand, both in comfort but also to monitor his pulse herself, "I'm just a medic."

"Thank you," Phil opened his eyes once more, "You don't hear that enough."

Her smile was a little sad, "I don't think many Medics do. But thank you."

Phil let out a sigh, the quirk on his lips growing more now that it was clear he was actually going to survive past the wound he had sustained.

Olivia looked up when the door to the room opened and one of the medical associates stepped in. It was a little startling to her to see someone in a uniform like that. She was so used to seeing the nurses and doctors dressed in white during the war, but SHIELD seemed to take a different approach. While their agents tended to wear black, it appeared the medical division wore a navy blue, almost like overalls. Each of them had a patch on their left side with their name under it and what appeared to be their specialty in the field of medicine below that.

She waited, getting up and moving to the side to allow the woman to look over Phil and his stats quickly before she left to give her report to Fury.

"It's because of you, you know," Phil mumbled when Olivia set back beside him, taking his hand once more.

"What is?"

"The Olive Branch."

"I'm afraid I don't follow," she told him gently.

He seems like he wanted to chuckle at her response, but a groan of pain kept him from following through, "Medical branch...the patch," he managed to move his other hand somewhat, not quite seeming in control of his movements just yet as his arm swung across his body to rest over his heart. Though he tapped it where she'd seen the patch the woman had been wearing.

She nodded, slowly understanding, "The patches are olive branches?" and then his first words struck her, "...SHIELD's medical branch is _called_ the Olive Branch?"

Phil nodded, humming under his breath as he let his eyes fall closed, "For you. Help, no matter who. You inspired...a whole generation," he told her, though his words were getting softer and more mumbled, "SHIELD wouldn't have a medical division..."

Olivia sat back just a little as Phil drifted off to sleep, blinking a bit to try and keep the tears that were growing in her eyes from falling as she made sense of his words. Apparently SHIELD hadn't had much of a plan to create a medical division at first, but her efforts in the war were enough to inspire them to do so. The entire medical division of SHIELD came about because of _her_. All of the technology she had seen those doctors use to save Phil, to bring him back when he had died for a moment or two on the operating table, to stabilize him, wouldn't have existed if they didn't have this branch. It explained why the doctors and the other medical professionals had looked at her the way they did when she had come in with Phil, like they were meeting a personal hero.

And the Olive Branch? From what she could gather of Phil's words, to help no matter who. The patch was SHIELD's own insignia for first aid. That those of the medical profession for SHIELD would extend their help to anyone, no matter who they were, if they were injured or in need of assistance. They extended an olive branch, perhaps even to their enemies, because of her belief and her efforts in the war.

She found herself smiling just a little bit and shaking her head in thought. She had always known Steve would inspire so many people with his efforts. But she had never given much thought to what her trials and tribulations were going to amount to. She was sitting in the middle of it now, in a room, in an entire branch of a base dedicated to helping people.

She could finally see it.

She took a deep breath, clearing her throat lightly as she stood. Fury had been _very_ clear that, once Phil had woken up, once she had seen that he was stable and conscious for herself, that she was to come and find him. She was sure the nurse who had checked on Phil would make that report to Fury and if she didn't leave soon he would track her down. She looked over at Phil, smiling at the sight of him sleeping comfortably, all of his stats strong and stable, and stepped beside him. She leaned down to press a kiss to his forehead like Michael had done to her and Peggy so often when they were ill, before she straightened and made her way out of the room.

~8~

"Do you understand?" Fury spoke to Olivia as she stood before him in a small room of the medical wing.

He seemed very serious, and she seemed very angry.

"Let me see if I do," she began, though her voice was like steel, "You want me to _lie_ to _Steve_ , to _my partner_ , and let him think Phil is _dead_?"

"Agent Coulson's status must remain confidential," Fury agreed, his voice equally as tense and strict.

"You have made it _very_ clear that it should remain confidential," she repeated, "I want to know why _Steve_ cannot know."

Fury let out a long sigh, "The same reason I sent the report that they called it. You saw what happened when everyone was brought together, the fighting, the bickering. They were _never_ going to be able to work together. Unless they had something to fight _for_."

"You want to use Phil's injury, I'm sorry his 'death,' to motivate a team?" Olivia shook her head, sounding absolutely disgusted with the idea.

"They would honor his memory by..."

"No," Olivia cut in, "I won't do it. I will not. I refuse."

"Major Williams..."

"Director Fury, you listen to me very carefully, sir. I will _not lie_ to my partner."

"The fate of the Avengers Initiative rests on them coming together over this."

" _Steve_ doesn't need any motivation to work as part of a team!" Olivia defended, "It's the others you need to worry about. If _they_ can work as a team, Steve can work with them."

"He didn't seem too willing before."

"Because no one else was willing to work with him either. Look at the people you brought in, Director, and ask yourself which of them actually has _any_ experience being part of _a team_ at all," she gave him a moment to consider it before she continued, "Dr. Banner isolated himself, the Black Widow is an assassin and assassins work best alone, Tony Stark holds a solo career as Iron Man. And Thor, well, Thor appeared to care little about anything beyond finding the cube. Steve was part of the Howling Commandos, he was part of the army, he was part of a team, he has _always_ been part of a larger group. He can't be part of a team if the team itself can't be a team. If the others come together, Steve will too. I will not lie to him about something like this, there is no reason to."

Fury was silent for quite a long while, trying to stare her down, but Olivia would not be moved. Not when her convictions told her that she was right. It was something Peggy had told her once, that when something was wrong it was her duty to plant herself like a tree and stand against the opposition no matter who it was. You had to do what was _right_.

The others were not her responsibility, she had no say over what Fury told them or did not. But Steve was _her_ partner, in every way that mattered, she would not lie to him, not for anyone, not for anything.

"If you ask him to fight on a team he will," Olivia repeated, sure of it, "He doesn't need something like this to ensure that he does."

Fury let out a long, deep sigh, shaking his head as though he was going to regret this, "Fine. You have my permission to tell Rogers the truth. _But_ ," he added, "I will ask that you wait until after I have said my piece to them. Deal?"

Olivia wasn't pleased with that addendum, but it appeared Fury was at least willing to compromise with her on this. She could understand somewhat why he might request that. If he was going to speak to the team as a whole, they would be around each other and see each other's reactions. Steve would have to react as though he truly believed Phil had died in order for the others to believe it too. As much as she hated lying to him, she would have to look at this more as delaying the truth.

But he _would_ be told the truth.

"Deal."

~8~

Olivia slowly approached Natasha as the woman stood outside of a cell, looking through a small window in the door at where Agent Barton had been strapped down, deemed a danger to himself and others while he was still under Loki's control. It appeared, though, that Natasha's method of trying to break him free was actually working from what the scans had displayed.

She had been forbidden by Fury to go with him while he spoke to the other members, Natasha would not be pulled from Barton's side. Fury seemed to think that she would be incapable of holding it together or schooling her emotions as though Phil had actually died, and told her he would send Steve her way once he had spoken to them. So she was waiting in the medical wing, checking on the remaining SHIELD agents, when she spotted Natasha.

"You're worried about him," she remarked as she glanced at Natasha, the woman not even looking away from the window.

"Of course I am," Natasha nearly snapped.

She reached out and put a hand on Natasha's shoulder, squeezing it, "He's a strong man, Tasha. He WILL push Loki's control off him. You both were trained in resisting conditioning like that," she recalled from the files.

"No," Natasha shook her head, "Not like _this_."

She could only shrug slightly, that was true, this was…magic, not something often taught in training soldiers, "Well…you DID hit him round the head rather hard," she smiled a bit, nudging her, "That HAD to get through even his thick skull."

Natasha cracked a smile at her words, before looking over at her, "You saw the scans?"

Olivia nodded, thinking back to the x-rays and the other scans the agents had taken of Barton while he had been unconscious. It was both in an effort to see if his brain was lighting up differently under Loki's control, and also to ensure no damage has been done in his fight with Natasha, "I have, yes."

Natasha was silent for a moment, opening her mouth once or twice as though trying to speak, "Did I...I didn't...his head..."

"You didn't cause him any damage," Olivia promised her, "He may have a nasty bruise, and quite severe headaches for the next few days, his eyesight may be a little blurry, but we won't know till he wakes. Other than that, he will heal, and he will be fine."

Natasha nodded, looking back at the window once more, "Unlike other people..." she murmured under her breath.

Olivia had to look away, not sure she could face Natasha knowing that Phil was still alive while the woman clearly thought he had died as Fury intended. Luckily, before Natasha could notice anything odd, they could see Barton slowly starting to wake within the room. Natasha gave a glance over at Olivia, nodding her head in thanks, before she keyed in a code and entered the room to be with the man as he came to.

Olivia let out of breath, looking around at the hall and the few people still in the main infirmary area, before she shook her head and made her way out of the room. This was eating her alive, the thought that, right now, Fury was talking to Steve as though Phil were dead. They had no secrets from each other, Fury had to be done speaking to the the boys.

She nodded to herself and left the infirmary.

~8~

Steve paced within the locker room he had been given on the base, having needed to get out of the Bridge and away from Fury and Tony. He just needed a moment, he just needed to breathe, he just needed Olivia, but he couldn't go find her, because she was active as a medic right now, and they had both promised never to interfere with each other while they were doing their duty. But he was going up the walls with the need to just hug her. He hadn't even realized she had gone to the detention chamber, he hadn't even known she had been right there in front of Loki, until after it was all over.

He had heard Fury over the comm., calling out about Phil needing medical assistance. He had heard Olivia shout in the background and his heart had stopped. Because Olivia had been _there_ when Loki had been free, Olivia could have been attacked, she could have been killed by Loki just like Phil. And all he wanted to do track her down and pull her into his arms and reassure himself that she was still there. But Fury had called her in to assist in the infirmary, and it was only for the injured and he wasn't injured. He had ended up pacing up and down the command center, waiting until she was cleared to leave.

Only for Fury to arrive and start talking about Phil and every word out of that man's mouth just made him feel infinitely worse.

Fury had flung the trading cards that Phil had collected on to the table, some of them covered in blood. He could see Olivia's signature on some of them, but there were ones of him without any penmanship. Fury had remarked about how he just didn't get around to signing them. It was such a simple thing that would have made Phil so overjoyed yet he hadn't made the extra effort Olivia had to actually DO it.

And hadn't that been exactly why he and Olivia did things as soon as possible? Because tomorrow was never guaranteed?

Fury didn't stop there, going on to remind them about their situation. They were dead in the air, the communications were knocked off, all the programs running to locate the cube had been corrupted, Bruce was gone, Thor was gone, and Phil was dead. At least Fury had admitted to the weapons SHIELD had been building, but that hadn't been the main game plan, not for Fury, not just building up an arsenal of Tesseract-powered weapons. There had been something more he hoped to gain from bringing them together over the search for the cube.

He told them about the Avengers Initiative. How he wanted to bring together a group of remarkable people, so that they could work together when the Earth had a true need of them, to fight enemies and battles that average people could never handle. It made sense now, why the specialists, as Fury had called them, had all come with their own strengths and uniqueness and weapons. He brought up how Phil had _believed_ in that initiative, how he died hoping it could work, the unspoken part about how he had probably doubted it in the end after seeing them all together was clear. Phil Coulson had believed in heroes, both old fashioned and new, Phil just wanted to help people and protect his planet.

They had let him down.

He had died never seeing that initiative able to take off.

And all Steve kept thinking about was all the people he used to know who died never able to see the fruits of their labor. He felt his mind drifting back to Bucky, how the man had died before the war was even over and never got to see their victory. Olivia had reminded him of everything Bucky believed in when he had wanted to give up, she had gotten him up and fighting again, because Bucky believed in what they were doing and just because he had died it didn't mean the cause had died with him.

It was the same now, Phil had died believing the Avengers could _be_ something, just because he was gone didn't mean that that dream had to stop.

But God, he really just needed a hug right now and he couldn't even admit it to anyone but Olivia because he was Captain America, the man who had to be strong, the man who always had to have a plan. But what plan did he have now? He had failed Bucky. He had failed Phil. He just...

He nearly sagged when he felt two arms wrap around him from behind and hug him tightly, feeling Olivia press up against the back of his suit. She snuck up on him again, even while his pacing brought him within sight of the door. But he'd never been more grateful for her sudden appearance because it pulled him out of his darkening thoughts.

He squeezed her arms for the moment, before turning around so he could hug her more fully, winding his arms around her waist as he held her tightly to him. The two of them taking a minute, maybe a few longer, to just hold each other, relieved to be together again.

"Are you alright?" Olivia murmured, her voice next to his ear.

"Now," he admitted to her, letting out of breath and closing his eyes, just feeling her with him, reminding himself she was alive and well and with him again.

"I meant were you hurt?"

"No, were you?"

"No," Olivia pulled back to look at him, tears in her eyes as she saw the utter devastation in his own.

"Thank God you're ok," Steve leaned forward to rest his forehead to hers, taking a moment to breathe, "If anything happened to you..."

"I was well-protected," she reassured him.

"When you were on _the Bridge_ ," he countered, pulling back to look at her again, "You went into the detention chamber with _Loki_..."

"Phil was injured, I couldn't stand by and do nothing."

A part of Steve wanted to ask her, beg her, never to do something like that again, never to risk her life the way she had for someone else. But a larger part of him knew she always would, she would never be able to stand aside while someone was hurt or in pain. Just like he would never be able to stand to the side while someone was in danger. They both understood the risk involved when they joined the army, they both understood their lives would always be at stake for someone else's safety. But it never stopped the flash of selfishness and wanting her to always be safe that appeared whenever she wasn't.

"I'm sorry," he said instead, reaching out to touch her cheek, knowing it must devastate her to have lost Phil the way she had, "You did everything you could and..."

"Steve," Olivia cut in gently, reaching up to touch his hand and pull it from her face to hold it in her own. She slowly moved to the side, sitting down on a small bench and moving him to join her, "What I tell you must stay between us," her hand moved up to touch the end of her necklace, and he knew it was serious, she only ever did that before a battle, when something was touching to her, or when something was truly serious.

"Of course," he promised, his own hand going to where he could just barely feel the end of the necklace she had given him under his uniform, "What is it, Liv?"

"Phil is still alive," she told him, lowering her voice as though afraid someone might walk past his locker door and hear her.

Steve stared at her and blinked, "...I'm sorry?"

Olivia nodded, "He was still stable when Fury made that call. I was with him all the way to the infirmary, and even in the operating room for a Time. He's stable, Steve, he's alive."

Steve blinking rapidly, shaking his head, "But Fury...why would he...he told us...I don't..."

"He thought it would help motivate the others to come together as a team," she told him, "He tried to order me to keep it from you."

"What?" he looked at her.

"I refused. _You_ are my partner and I will keep nothing from you. You are the only one who doesn't need motivation to be part of a team."

"He ordered you not to tell me?"

She nodded, "But it wasn't right to keep this from you. So I told him I was going to tell you no matter what. He asked that I just wait until after he had spoken to everyone."

Steve had to look away for a moment, a very large part of him was completely thrown by the fact that Phil Coulson was still alive, was completely disgusted with the fact that Fury had tried to use it to get what he wanted. He was disturbed by the feeling that he had almost fallen for it, that he HAD fallen for it, that Fury would have let him carry that burden and that guilt for the rest of his life and now he was questioning the leadership of SHIELD that a person like that could do something to the people he wanted on his team, manipulate them the way he had.

But there was a smaller part of his mind niggling him at the back, that told him it was also a little bit about the fact that Fury had ordered Olivia to remain silent, and she refused. She have been given an order, and she had questioned it, she had fought back against it because it wasn't right.

When he had first come out of the ice, when he realized nothing was the same except him and Olivia, he felt lost, they both had. They both struggled to find a place in this new world, a soldier and a medic out of time, as Loki had described. Being given this mission by SHIELD, he had thought it might be the chance he needed to really find his place again. To work with a descendant of the SSR, to be the soldier fighting HYDRA once more. He had been so desperate to feel like he belonged and had a purpose again that he had blindly followed Fury's orders. Even when Bruce and Tony had been questioning it, he had been going along with it, even though he knew on some level that there was something off about it as well. He had been an obedient little soldier.

What if Fury had ordered him to keep this secret from Olivia? A large part of him wanted to say he would refuse exactly as she had, because she was his partner and he kept nothing from her.

But that small part whispered that maybe he wouldn't, that maybe he would have just followed orders.

He didn't want that, he didn't _want_ to be an obedient soldier. How different would that be from the compromised SHIELD agents Loki had gotten under his control? Perhaps it was Olivia's role in the war, as a medic as opposed to a soldier, someone who had a little more freedom in when it came to following commands than a soldier did. But her words, her will, it was starting to remind him of who he was, of _why_ he had become a soldier. It reminded him of why Dr. Erskine had selected him.

Dr. Erskine had not picked Hodge because he was a mindless soldier following orders, the man had picked him because he had a mind of its own and a good heart.

He felt like he had lost himself a little bit since waking up on the ice, but right now, with Olivia beside him, he felt like that part was coming back.

He looked over at Olivia, "I love you," he told her, for so many reasons that he couldn't name. For telling him the truth, for disobeying orders, for saving Phil, for reminding him of who he was, for standing with him, for just...everything.

Olivia seemed a little thrown by the change in the direction of the conversation, but smiled anyway, "I love you, too."

He began to nod to himself as he thought back on her words, "Whether Phil is alive or not, he believed in this initiative, he believed in heroes. I think it's time we gave the world the team they deserve."

Olivia nodded and squeezed his hand, "I'm with you."

~8~

Steve and Olivia walked into the detention chamber of the Base to see Tony standing there, looking at where the circular cell had once stood, silent.

"I'm sorry," Steve spoke, "He seemed like a good man."

Olivia had mentioned that Fury didn't want anyone to know that Phil was still alive, but Olivia had argued to tell _him_. Which he assumed meant no one else had been given that same permission. He didn't want to get her in trouble with Fury, so he had to play along that he still thought Phil was gone.

"He was an idiot," Tony countered.

"Why? For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone."

"He wasn't alone, in the end," Olivia reminded him.

"A lot of good that did him, didn't it?" he sounded like he meant for it to be a snap, but it just came across this more mournful.

Olivia reached out a hand to Steve's chest when he opened his mouth to defend her, and shook her head for a moment, "Don't allow your hurt, to grow into a desire to hurt others."

Tony swallowed looked away.

"...is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asked after a minute.

"WE ARE NOT SOLDIERS!" this time Tony _did_ snap, spinning fully to face the two of them, his face an angry mask, but his eyes showing the true sorrow he felt, "I am _not_ marching to Fury's fife!"

"And neither are we," Olivia answered calmly, reaching down to take Steve's hand and squeeze it, knowing how instantly defensive he could get when people raised their voice at her, but understanding Tony knew Phil better than they did and clearly the man was a good friend of his. He had every right to be angry and upset.

"He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does," Steve agreed. And it was true, whether or not Phil was still alive, Fury wanted them to think he was dead, and it was Fury who had ordered Phil to secure the detention chamber and put him right before Loki, "Right now we've got to put that aside and get this done."

"If I understood any of your scientific jargon, Loki is going to need a power source," Olivia added, "Is there a way to rate the different power levels of reactors around..."

Tony turned his head, as though to roll his eyes, when he caught sight of the blood still drying on the wall, and a thought hit him, "He made it personal."

"That's not the point," Steve argued.

"That IS the point. That's _Loki's_ point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"Destroy the foundation and the structure itself will fall," Olivia answered.

"He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

"Right," Steve nodded slowly, catching on, "We caught his act at Stuttengard."

"Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered..." he suddenly stopped, his eyes widening as he figured out exactly what power source Loki was going to use, "Son of a bitch!" and stormed out of the room, two very confused super soldiers rushing after him.

~8~

"Tasha?" Olivia called as she approached the room Barton had been tied up in, not seeing the man but Natasha sitting calmly on a chair, "We need to go."

"Go where?" she frowned but stood, instantly ready.

Steve appeared In the doorway with her, "We'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?"

"I can," a voice called as a door to a restroom opened and Barton walked out, the eerie blue blow that had been around his eyes gone.

Steve glanced over at Natasha for confirmation that he was clean, and the woman nodded, "You got a suit?"

"Yeah."

"Can I say it?" Olivia looked to Steve who gave us small smile and a nod, "Suit up."

~8~

Olivia, Steve, Natasha, and Barton made their way into a quinjet only to find a young SHIELD pilot standing in their way to stop them, "You are not authorized to be here..."

"Son..." Steve cut in with us single shake of his head, "Just don't."

"We've got clearance," Natasha told him as they headed into the jet, leaving the pilot no choice but to step off of it as they got the craft up and running and shot out of the base after Tony in his Iron Man suit leading the way to Stark Towers.

A/N: Phil lives! :D When I was watching the scene where Loki attacked him, I was just like 'no! Don't do that! Don't sit that way! Pressure!' and other things that Olivia tried to do to help keep him stable. I felt, with her there and tending the wound the way she was, Phil might not have lost as much blood and might have stood a better chance of surviving. He did die on the operating table briefly, but came back. I haven't seen much of the SHIELD TV show, but I do know Phil had quite a painful and traumatic revival as he did completely die before SHIELD brought him back days later. It broke my heart what they put him through, how he actually begged for death at one point, and I just couldn't put him through that. So here, Olivia's efforts saved him. He still has a very long way to go before he fully recovers, but he's alive! :D

And the Olive Branch :) Based on the movies, I feel like we didn't see much of the medical side of SHIELD, we mostly saw the soldiers and the weapons and the fighting. There HAD to be a medical side, agents would get hurt and I'd imagine bringing them to a hospital every time would get expensive. So I expanded on the little we did see. SHIELD really grew into what it was because of Steve, I feel, and the people who he knew who fought to make it what it was. I felt like it was fitting the medical division grew too, but somewhat off-screen, in a similar sense of Olivia and her Medic efforts. The medics were somewhat in the background, not getting as much attention or thanks as they deserve for their efforts, and so the medical division grew in the background too, pushed more and inspired by Olivia. The OLIVE Branch, the medical branch, of SHIELD :)

My thoughts on the Steve vs. team thing. I feel like, before Phil, none of them really knew they were supposed to be there as a TEAM. It seemed like they were all under the impression they were there for individual reasons separate of each other. Steve sort of acted like he wanted to take command because he thought there was no team, it was just him and Olivia and they had more experience with the Tesseract. Had he known these were his teammates, I feel like he would have handled everything much differently. Yes, Olivia called it a team earlier, because she thought that was what it was supposed to be but when no one else acted like it, she just assumed she was wrong. I couldn't see Olivia lying to Steve about something like this just to 'motivate a team' when Steve was really the ONLY one brought in who had any experience BEING part of a TEAM. Everyone else had always been solo acts, Steve and Olivia had the team experience. So Fury's logic there, to Olivia, was off and gave her the loophole to fight to tell Steve :)

Fury's compromise with telling Steve, I think is him also manipulating the situation a bit. As far as Olivia knows, having been in the medical wing since Phil went down, she doesn't know that Bruce and Thor are gone. She thinks Fury is about to talk to ALL of them, not just Steve and Tony. And Fury lets her think that if it gets him to make the others believe Phil is dead. If TONY believes it, being the closest to him, in a way, the others would too. For Tony to believe it, everyone in the room when he tells them has to believe it too. Steve is not happy with Fury lying to him or making him think Phil died, he's going to be hesitant and questioning a lot of things when it comes to Fury from that point ;)

I feel like Steve had a bit of an epiphany here that I hope sets the stage for the following movies where he's less a soldier taking orders to questioning what's right. It was such a big thing in the first movie why Erskine picked him over Hodge, I felt like a part of it was Hodge was a soldier who would not question his orders whereas Steve would do what was right. Here, he's lost so much he's trying to find a purpose and sort of veered down that mindless soldier path. But with Fury hiding the weapons and now learning Phil is alive, he's remembering more of himself and why Erskine chose him. Because he ISN'T a mindless, obedient soldier. He's a good man with a good heart, and if something is wrong, he CAN stand up against it :) He is very angry with Fury for all this, but it was a bit overshadowed by his own realizations about himself and his own actions, once he's back on his feet, Fury may see the full brunt of what happens when Captain America doesn't trust yup ;)

And, lastly, I can say we're going to see Olivia's 'weapon' in the next chapter ;)

Some notes on reviews...

I don't think I can get rid of Fury too soon, but he's definitely going to face some opposition and challenge from Steve before the end ;) But yup, Steve knows the truth now :)

I definitely think the scepter scrambled quite a few things lol. He 'remembers' Thor tossing him into an abyss, but not the reality where he let go and let himself fall into that abyss even when others tried to save him. But his comment to Olivia is more meant to be human women, not Asgardians like Sif and Frigga. He knows they are a match and powerful, but, to him, a puny human, even a 'super soldier' one isn't. Or he thinks they aren't. Especially because he's never seen Olivia fight, he's seen her in action, but not in combat, and she was tending to Phil rather than stopping him so he sees her as weak. That she MUST know HE is far too powerful and THAT's why she's not trying to stop HIM sort of thing ;)

Very true, I could see Olivia being devastated by the first option, but ultimately trying to use it as motivation to be better. Now she's seeing more of what Natasha and Maria were saying, that if she fights the enemy, she can stop them before others get hurt (in a sense, since she couldn't have fought Loki before Phil got hurt, since he got hurt before she got there). But also, if he lives, she's now more sure of herself and her skills. She's more sure of her role and her calling. She's a medic, she doesn't have to fight to make a difference :) And, if word got out that Phil lived, that would have been something Maria and Natasha would come to realize as well. Fighting to prevent injury is important, but being able to TREAT that injury is SO important too :)


	9. Coming Together

Coming Together

Olivia looked up as Natasha came to sit beside her in the quinjet, Steve by the pilot's seat, speaking quietly to Barton as he piloted the ship. She was carrying a black bag that she had brought with her on the jet, dropping it down on the ground beside her feet and starting to rummage in it.

"Facing down Loki wasn't the last thing Phil did," Natasha told her, "He got this to Hill first."

"What is it?" Olivia asked when Natasha turned, a bundle in her hand that was wrapped in of dark black cloth. It was long and thin, about two feet from what she could tell.

"Yours," Natasha said, moving to place the bundle on Olivia's lap.

Olivia was slightly embarrassing by the fact that it took her a moment or two to realize what Natasha meant. _This_ was the weapon she and Maria had been talking to Phil about, the one that they seemed to think fit her. She looked down at it, and back at Natasha, the woman smirking and nodding for her to open it. She took a breath and gently began to unwrap the object. Well, she was wrong about that, it was object _s_. There were two of them.

It looked like a metal rod of some sort, with a grip on the end, though there was a small button just above the grip. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, and now that it was in front of her...she wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Batons," Natasha explained when Olivia just stared at them, "Coulson went all out, managed to get you the only prototype made of vibranium. Don't tell the Cap SHIELD managed to get their hands on a little more of it," she teased a little, "You can fix them behind your pack, pull them out if you need them. They're retractable, but you may need to get holsters or work on your utility belt before you can put them there. This," Natasha pointed to the button just above the grips, "This will activate the FF-03."

"And that is?"

"A Force Field," Natasha continued, "Whenever you bring the two batons together in a cross or an x or anything, it will automatically trigger force field and create an energy in front of you to repel attacks."

"Not quite a shield," Olivia murmured, recalling Maria's words, but still quite A shield.

"The buttons are for if you can only manage to raise one of your arms, they'll trigger the energy. And," Natasha reached out to show her the bottom of the grip, where it appeared to have been smoothed into a dome shape, but there was an odd sort of static around it, "New tech. Place the baton down with this end touching a surface, any position you put it in, it'll stay. If you push both buttons while the batons are positioned somewhere, the FF-03 will create not just a shield, but an entire force field dome around you."

"So, if I'm treating someone who's injured," Olivia realized, "I can use this for extra protection, so I don't end up distracting anyone else on the team."

"Yeah. The FF-03 was designed to absorb any attacks and use it to keep the shield powered. The more you're attacked, the more energy it stores and the longer it lasts."

"That's...it's...Tasha I..." Olivia shook her head, not sure what else to say. She had been so worried about the fact that they would give her a _weapon_ , she didn't even stop to think that they might be giving her something _more_ than that. In her mind, weapons were used to attack, sometimes to defend, to hurt or kill...but Natasha and Maria and Phil had gone above and beyond and given her a literal way to protect people with the 'weapons.'

"Like Hill and I were saying, you're ambidextrous, so having two weapons would give you a better chance," Natasha pointed out, "Batons are non-lethal, short range but not too close. You won't have to engage in literal hand-to-hand combat, you won't have to worry about you taking out anyone, it'll be _that_ ," she nodded at the batons, "That lands a blow, not _you_. I know it's a technicality," she rolled her eyes, "But I've worked with some people in the past who didn't want to physically hurt someone. And the way they got around it, was to use something that didn't let them physically touch the other person. I thought, maybe, it might help you."

Olivia thought on that, on the logic behind this weapon, and she could understand where Natasha and Maria were coming from with it. By having two batons, one in each hand, she would be able to utilize her non-dominant hand, keep it sharp. It would also make sure that, if she was injured on one side, she would still be able to protect with the other. And, by having them be batons, something that made it so she wasn't physically landing blows with her hands on another person, it wouldn't be _her_ hurting them, but the baton instead. She would be able to stop a person from something of a distance. She would also have more control over where she landed the blows, aiming for non-fatal areas, like taking out a leg or hitting someone in their side without needing them to get close enough for her arm to reach that area.

She felt herself smiling as she looked down at the objects on her lap, her mind drifting back to her childhood, to a memory of her and Peggy and Michael. One of the few times her health hadn't held her back, when she had been well enough to play outside with them, they'd played a game. It had actually been shortly after she finished the 'Treasure Island' book, Michael had organised a treasure hunt for them, he was guarding the treasure and she and Peggy had to use their swords (sticks) to fight him for it. Peggy had faked being wounded, crying out with dramatics that it was up to Olivia now. Michael had played quite a show of putting up a fight against her but ultimately being defeated by her skills and letting her get the treasure. Batons, she's supposed, were a little like that, like a sword, something she could use to block an attack.

And the fact that they were batons and a bit long, it meant she wouldn't have to worry so much about her strength in the middle of battle. There was something lost in the strength of a punch when it was on the end of something longer than your natural fist. Some of the strength was reduced the farther away the blow was, and there was the fact that it would also depend on how strong her wrists were to hold the metal when it came to a blow. With something like this, she could probably hit someone with it and knock them out without actually worrying she had killed them like she could if she used her full strength and her fist.

"Thank you," Olivia murmured, looking over at Natasha.

Natasha gave her a smile, "With what might be about to go down, you might need to use them with the basics we showed you. Whether you use this or not, they're yours. Coulson would have wanted you to have them."

Olivia nodded at that, looking down at the batons as Natasha got up to join the men at the front again, moving into the second pilot seat to help Barton now that they were getting closer to Stark Towers. She took a breath and did as Natasha suggested, fixing them to the back of her uniform in between her pack and the back of her jacket. The straps of the pack kept it nearly pressed to her back, they were tight enough that the batons felt secure and like they wouldn't fall off. She didn't know if she would actually use them in combat, or if she would just use them for the shield qualities, but they would be useful in some way to have on her. The length of them appeared to be just right, one end of the baton, with the grip, came to rest just by her shoulder, crossing in the back, to rest right by her lower hip. Unless someone was looking closely, they wouldn't even know she had them on her.

No sooner had Natasha reached the pilot's seat and strapped in, did a bright blue light shoot into the sky from the top of Stark Towers. Olivia quickly jumped up and rushed to the front, looking out the main window with Steve as the light struck the sky and swirled open into a portal through which, what she could only assume was, the Chitauri began to spill through.

It was pure mayhem as the alien army launched themselves at the unsuspecting civilians, firing at them, blasting lasers, blowing up cars, setting storefronts on fire. Natasha and Barton banked to the side quickly when an explosion ripped out the windows at the top floor of a building, flames and rubble raining down on the people below. From that moment, it was as though a domino effect of explosions just shot out, rippling across the city as soldiers and cops raced to try and cover the streets.

Olivia couldn't help think that she was likely _not_ going to be using the batons in combat, with all the destruction being caused in just those few moments she could only imagine the state of the people on the ground. There was a high chance there was going to be a large amount of injured for her to tend to while the others dealt with the enemy.

They quickly approached Stark Towers, spotting Tony leading a trail of Chitauri towards it.

"Stark, we're heading north east," Natasha called over the comm..

"What, did you stop for drive-thru?" he replied back, "Swing up Park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

"You may want to brace yourselves," Barton told the two standing behind the pilot chairs.

Olivia and Steve looked at each other and quickly moved into a position to brace for the upcoming maneuvers without moving too far from the front where they could see what was happening. They watched as Tony managed to fly up into the air, bringing a line of Chitauri right into view of the quinjet. Natasha changed the controls, readying machine guns, and fired at the aliens as Barton flew on. But there were just too many and the jet was overpowered, the other aliens targeting it when they realized what was attacking them.

The craft was hit, Barton calling out a warning as he struggled to land it somewhere. He only just barely managed to avoid crashing into buildings before they slammed into the streets. Olivia quickly looked over at the other three, making sure they were uninjured before Natasha was triggering the ramps and they were all running out of the ship.

"We've gotta get back up there," Steve shouted as they ran down the street, Olivia noting that they had just reached the café she and Steve had visited a few days ago, looking up at the architecture Steve had sketched, with Stark Towers high behind it.

Just as they came to a stop, the city seemed to suddenly fall silent for just a moment…before a loud, angry roar bellowed out from the portal. An enormous shadow began to slither its way out, becoming clear as it moved into the daylight. There was no other word to describe the creature other than a leviathan, one that was carrying Chitauri soldiers on its back.

"…oh dear," Olivia murmured as they all stared, completely out of their depth, while the creature flew over them, heading further into the city, the soldiers on its back hurling what looked like grappling hooks at the buildings it passed, using it to slide down them to the streets, others breaking right through the windows.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve shouted into the comm..

"I'm seeing," he replied, "Still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?"

"Bruce?" Olivia shook herself, "No, not as yet."

"Just keep me posted."

"Come on," Steve called as they began to run down the streets, trying to get closer to the tower.

But it appeared the Chitauri knew enough of what was happening on this side of the portal that they were flooding the streets to block the way, causing them to duck down behind an overturned taxi.

"We've got civilians still trapped up there," Barton reported.

Olivia tried to peer over the taxi to see if the Chitauri had grabbed any hostages in the direction Barton had indicated, only for Steve to pull her back down when Loki, on some sort of flying chariot, flew overhead.

"Loki," Steve glared after the Asgardian as he went on a spree of blasting anything and everything around him. Cars were smashed to pieces, people fleeing as fires sprang up for his efforts. It was clear they were terrified.

"Steve," Olivia reached out to touch his arm, catching the sound of something down the bridge they'd stopped on. She looked over at it, Steve following her sight to see a mass of Chitauri down that way, even more people trapped…but even more, a row of police cars further down.

If they could get to the police, they could use their help to secure the civilians.

"They're fish in a barrel down there," Steve frowned, concerned for both the police and the civilians they were trying to protect. It looked like a large number of the officers had congregated in one spot, trying to form something of a barricade, but it wouldn't help if they were all trying to fire at the Chitauri. All they would be doing was drawing attention to themselves and baiting the Chitauri into an attack of their own. If Loki or the others decided to fire at those police officers, the city would be down in a great number of First Responders.

The two super soldiers looked back to the side, hearing thumps and crashes, to see more Chitauri soldiers had landed just a few feet away from them on the other side of the overturned cars. Natasha quickly stood, two pistols in her hands, firing at them and managing to take out one or two. Barton ducked low and made his way to another overturned car, readying his bow and arrow.

"We got this," Natasha told the two of them, knowing they were torn between helping to get the trapped civilians Barton had identified or getting to the police, "It's good. Go!"

"You'll secure them?" Olivia asked Natasha, wanting confirmation and the woman nodded.

Steve turned to Burton as well, wanting to make sure they weren't about to leave them outmatched. It was one thing to read about their skills in a file, it was another thing to assume they could handle it just from that. He wanted verbal confirmation from the two assassins the first, "You think you can hold them off?"

"Captain," Barton began, pulling a trigger on his bow that seem to spark a mechanism on his quiver that selected an arrow for him, "It would be my genuine pleasure."

They watched as Barton stood, his bow and arrow already aimed and released, shooting one of the aliens right in the head. Natasha quickly moved to her feet as well to help him, and Steve and Olivia took that as their cue to head out. Steve looked to Olivia for a brief moment to make sure she was on board, and she nodded quickly, the two of them turning to make their way down the bridge. The Chitauri seemed to realize they were moving targets and began to try and fire at them, but they were both incredibly fast.

They made sure to keep each other in their line of sight, keeping even with each other as they ran. Right now, in the middle of something like this, where they were running through explosions going off around them, they _needed_ to be able to see each other.

For Steve it was familiar, running through a battlefield with HYDRA trying to stop him by dropping bombs or setting off mines. He needed to see Olivia there, to remind himself that he wasn't back in that position, it wasn't 1944, he wasn't alone. And for Olivia, she needed to see Steve there, within arm's reach. She had been close enough to the front lines a time or two where she could hear the explosions going off, could see them in the distance. While she has never had Steve's experience of being right in the thick of it, she HAD had more than enough nightmares about it. About explosions going off all around her while she tried to help the soldiers affected by them, but she couldn't reach them because more and more bomb seemed to fall all around her, and then she would be standing in the middle of a field of bodies when the dust cleared, and they would all stare at her with dead eyes filled with accusation. She needed to see Steve, to remind herself this wasn't one of those nightmares, this wasn't the same thing, they were together and when they were together they could do anything.

They both ran down the bridge and jumped off the side of it, flipping in the air and landing on a truck just underneath it, diving into a roll and back onto their feet as they continued to run. They jumped off the truck, landing firmly on the ground, and kept going. Olivia did her best to keep her eyes trained on all of her surroundings, keep her attention keen and sharp in case she heard any cries from civilians who might have been trapped or were injured. What she heard broke her heart, she could hear people still trapped in the buildings, and she could calculate from how high up she was hearing them and the time it would take for them to reasonably reach the bottom level of the buildings, they might end up running out right into the thick of it all.

"We need to get the officers evacuating buildings," she called to Steve as they neared the blockade of police cars, "We can't let them run out into the fight."

Steve nodded, "My thoughts exactly," he told her, as they approached the cops who were firing their pistols up at the flying chariots, but it was clear to both of them that the guns were useless against the Chitauri armor.

"Why are they wasting ammunition?" Olivia had to ask out loud, it was so glaringly clear the guns would do nothing yet the police kept firing.

Steve could only shake his head, asking himself the same thing. Instead of firing at the Chitauri with things that weren't even working, the police should have been focusing on evacuating the surrounding area. When one method failed, go for a second.

They were finally close enough to the police officers that they jumped into the air, Steve landing on top of the police car while Olivia landed on the hood.

"We need men in these buildings," Steve began to give orders.

"There are people inside that are about to run right into the line of fire," Olivia added.

"You take them through the basement or through the subway."

"But whatever you do, you must keep them _off_ the streets."

"We need a perimeter as far back as 39th..."

One of the officers, clearly the sergeant by his identifying insignias, scoffed, "Why the hell should I take orders from _you_?"

"DOWN!" Olivia shouted, hearing something approaching them from behind that sounded quite a bit like an energy blast that they had heard the Chitauri firing at people on the way over. She jumped down off the hood, pulling the sergeant down with her, as Steve turned and blocked the blast with his shield.

Two Chitauri soldiers tried to leap at him, but Steve fought them off with ease, slamming them to the side with both his fist and his shield, and then turned to give to the officers a look. That was all they really needed to know exactly why they should listen to the order they had been given. They had been firing at these creatures and hadn't been able to take them out, yet Steve had felled two in mere seconds.

"I need men in those buildings!" the sergeant pulled himself to his feet and began to turn to his men, ordering them as he went, "Lead the people down and away from the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th."

"Civilians secure," Olivia reported back to Steve with a small smile.

He gave a nod, the two of them quickly looking around to make sure that the civilians were taken care of, that there wasn't anything major that still needed their help. They trusted that Natasha and Barton could hold their own against the Chitauri, but neither of them wanted to leave the two assassins alone for long. Natasha would need to make a headshot every time as would Clint, for they'd seen through the police that human weapons were largely useless against the enemy armor. And if one of them got hurt in the time it had taken them to get to the police, Olivia would be needed to tend to the wound.

They looked to each other and quickly made their way back to their starting point, coming up on Natasha and Barton to see they had begun to be overrun by the Chitauri. Steve used his shield to his advantage, slamming into the Chitauri soldiers with all his might, using both his fist and shield to knock them down and away from Barton.

Natasha gasped as one of the Chitauri was able to get a blow on her, sending her falling back, and aiming one of their rifles at her...

Only for it to be knocked to the side.

Natasha looked over, seeing Olivia standing behind it, the batons in her hand, having used one to hit into the side of the Chitauri's head and send a diving to the side, out for the count.

"Useful, right?" Natasha smirked at her.

Olivia shook her head, moving the one baton to her other hand to reach out and help her up, "Well, they're not exactly human..." Olivia offered. She didn't know how she would handle the situation if the attacking army have been human instead of alien. Her oath extended to helping others, but it was always with the understanding that it was the human race in question.

She had sworn to protect people, by taking this mission with Steve it extended to protecting this planet. Aliens did not fall under her jurisdiction. Or at least that's what she kept telling herself. That was probably the only way she would make it through this battle, reminding herself these were not people, they were not humans, her oath did not apply to them.

"Stick with that," Natasha agreed, quickly pulling out a pistol and firing it at one of the lingering Chitauri soldiers that tried to sneak up on Olivia. Now they were even.

They suddenly ducked to the ground, when a bolt of lightning struck down from the sky, apparently targeting the Chitauri soldiers but not them, blasting the aliens back in a massive shockwave. They watched as the soldiers convulsed and dropped to the ground, moments before Thor landed.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked, quickly brushing off the shock at Thor's sudden appearance.

"The powers surrounding the cube is impenetrable," Thor stated grimly.

"Thor's right," they could hear Tony over the comm., "We gotta deal with these guys."

"How do we do this?" Natasha asked.

Olivia looked around at them, catching Steve's eye as she smiled, "As a team," she said, earning a quirk of his lip in return.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor warned.

"I would imagine."

"Yeah, get in line," Barton grumbled.

"It's going to have to wait," she glanced between Barton and Thor with a pointed look.

Steve nodded, "Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got Stark up top, he's gonna need us..."

"Bruce?" Olivia cut in gently, when Bruce himself drove up to them on a small motorbike, getting off and looking around the city with a grimace on his face.

"So, this all seems horrible..." he spoke.

"I've seen worse," both Natasha and Olivia spoke, glancing at each other.

"Sorry," Banner winced, understanding that Natasha's words, at least, had come from when the Hulk had chased her through the base earlier. He'd managed to get in contact with Fury moments before he'd seen the portal open.

"No," Natasha shook her head, "We could use a little worse."

"Stark?" Steve called into the comm., "We got him."

"Banner?" Tony asked.

"Just like you said."

"Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you."

Before Steve or any of the others couldn't even speak those words to Bruce, they saw Tony fly out from behind a building, leading the largest of the Chitauri army, the leviathan creature, right behind him.

"Oh, bother..." Olivia breathed at the sight of it even more enraged than it had been when it came out of the portal. Whatever Tony had done to get it to follow him the way it was, clearly only made it angry.

"I...I don't see how that's a party..." Natasha shook her head in disbelief.

They watched in horror as Tony seemed to try and both avoid the Leviathan's attacks while also keeping its attention, swooping up and down the street but the leviathan followed every move he made, ending up barreling right into the street and into the buildings with every move.

"Bruce?" Olivia looked over at him as man began to slowly walk towards the approaching monster.

"Now might be a really good time for you to get angry," Steve told him.

Bruce gave them a sad smile as he looked over his shoulder, "That's my secret, Captain. I'm _always_ angry."

As he turned back to continue his walk, his body began to swell and stretch, green shooting through his veins before it spread across the skin, and they watched as Bruce morphed into the Hulk before their eyes, letting out a roar before he launched himself at the leviathan.

It was truly a sight to behold, watching the Hulk attacking and seeming to succeed against the leviathan. Tony turned in mid-air to assist, bringing out rockets from his armor, and releasing one. It hit the creature, blowing it completely away, screeching and flailing as it flew past.

Steve reached out, grabbing is Olivia by the waist and pulling her close as he lifted his shield above them. Bits and pieces of the leviathan that had been blown off raining down on them, chunks of meat on fire that sizzled when they reached the pavement. Steve slowly lowered his shield and they looked at the result of the Hulk and Tony's efforts, the largest of the alien army finally taken down, giving them hope that they could stand against the rest of the Chitauri force...when even more leviathans flew out of portal.

Olivia blinked quite a few times as she stared at the approaching enemies, shaking her head slowly at the sight of it. She took a deep breath and let it out, looking over at the others, "We _can_ do this," she told them, belief firm in her voice.

Natasha didn't seem like she fully believed it, but gave a brief nod as she looked over, "Guys..." she began, her expression saying everything. Even if they couldn't do this, they _had_ to keep fighting. They couldn't give up. Because they were the only thing standing in between the Chitauri fully invading.

"Call it, Cap," Tony spoke as he landed beside them all.

"I think Liv is the higher ranking officer here," Natasha spoke, a small smirk growing on her face, needing just this moment of relief to steel herself for the inevitable battle.

"Steve has more experience with battle strategy," Olivia shook her head, "I trust his judgement."

"...wait, LIV?" Tony turned to the two women, sounding completely offended, "The _killer assassin_ gets to call you 'Liv?' How is THAT fair?"

Steve shook his head at that, focusing on their attack plan, "Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or your turn it to ash."

"Wanna give me a lift?" Barton turned to Tony.

"Right," he stepped closer to grab Barton's arm, "Better clench up, Legolas," before kicking on his rocket boots to launch them up to the roofs.

"Thor," Steve continued, turning to the Asgardian, "You've gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You've got the lightning. Light the bastards up," Thor nodded, spinning his hammer and using it to jettison him up top too, "The three of us," Steve gestured between himself, Natasha, and Olivia, "We stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And I expect a full report on exactly what those are," he pointed at the batons still held in Olivia's hands, "When this is all over. They suit you," he added with a wink, before looking over at the Hulk, "And Hulk...SMASH!"

The Hulk gave a wide grin before leaping into the air to do just that.

Olivia, Natasha, and Steve looked around, before turning their backs to each other in a small triangle, everyone ready to fight and hope they would be enough to save the world.

A/N: And now the Avengers have officially assembled :D And Olivia also has her 'weapons' too! :D

I debated over if she should have a weapon at all and if so, what one. It would have to be one that was non-lethal. Olivia, at this point, is still very firmly against doing true harm to others, even her enemies, so it had to be something that wasn't a gun or a blade. But it also couldn't be something that left it mostly to her physically touching people with her fists or feet, to her, a blow from her or Steve could kill a normal human if they aren't careful. Steve has had more than a year of experience in combat with his strength, she hasn't, so she's not confident in her ability to strike out with controlled strength. It couldn't be something that needed to be recharged or could die on her in the middle of a battle. But it did have to be something that could protect her, that could give her the comfort of not being the one to physically land ab blow, something that gave her more options of where to strike than the way you have to be close enough to hit someone with a fist.

Batons seemed like a good fit. Non-lethal, more control, it's not HER landing a blow but the metal. And I figured, with how advanced SHIELD was, they HAD to have some sort of force field tech that could be adapted to weapons. She has her own sort of shield now, it's not like Steve's but it's her own. And it can extend to let her patch someone up if it is that severe a situation :) She made the first step in using the weapons, though we have yet to see how she will be around HUMAN enemies, and we got a hint of Steve's reaction to them, but we'll get MUCH more about it in the next chapter ;)

Two final things here. I know we haven't really gotten to see Tony and Olivia interact in a way I'm sure a lot of you were hoping. I feel like they still needed to have a conversation about things before Tony could feel right teasing, in a sense of genuinely teasing her instead of purposefully trying to hurt/annoy her. That conversation will be coming in the next chapter, they'll come to a new understanding which will help set up some interactions between them in the future ;) We'll finally work out, or at least in this story, what his issue (for there seems to be some sort of minor issue) with her is and why it affects how he feels about Steve more than her, but still involves her ;)

And last thing, tomorrow's chapter will have the announcement of the pairing name for Steve and Olivia! :D So you can still vote if you haven't yet on my profile up until the next chapter and then we'll finally know ;)

Some notes on reviews...

I cannot see Phil being pleased Fury got blood on his cards. Lol, I can see him demanding Fury hunt him down the ones he stained so he can have Olivia and Steve sign them again :) I can't imagine Fury having to sit down on ebay or try to look up trading cards. Imagine him calling up a contact in like a shady selling circle and having to ask if he's got any intel on trading cards for Captain America :'D

Oh Olivia is definitely going to be working her way through modern medicine and things. Seeing how advanced Earth has become is going to motivate her even more to really learn new things that have come out to help the injured ;)

We may see a bit of Olivia fighting harder when Steve is injured, but it may not be in this story ;) Though I can say there will be a moment of Olivia and Loki confrontation, though it may be a bit more funny and less combat ;)

Olivia's nickname from Tony will be coming, but maybe not in this story, but soon ;) There may be something about nicknames in general in the next chapter though ;)


	10. An End and a Beginning

An End and a Beginning

The battle was brutal as Steve, Natasha, and Olivia fought the Chitauri on ground, doing their best to hold off the growing forces. Both Steve and Natasha seemed of the same mind that, because Olivia had the least amount of experience in combat, they would take on the majority of the forces themselves in the hopes that any stragglers who made it past them would be weakened or wounded enough that she could pick them off easier. While Olivia appreciated their consideration of her lack of skills, and how this was really the first major battle she was standing in the middle of and a part of, she wished they wouldn't have. Because, by taking on so many more soldiers, she could see them both wearing out even faster. She had managed to take out a handful of Chitauri, using the batons to knock them to the side or knock them out entirely, all the while reminding herself that they were aliens and not humans, that she was breaking no oaths by wounding them.

"Captain, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal," she heard Natasha speak as she looked over to see the woman slumping, worn out. While Natasha was an expert soldier, a master assassin, she was still human and without the added benefit of endurance from Dr. Erskine's serum. She and Steve were holding up better, but Natasha was struggling.

Olivia looked around, making sure there was no immediate danger before she made her way over to Natasha's side, quickly rummaging through her utility belt for something she had seen earlier.

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it," Steve reminded her.

"Well, maybe it's not about guns," Natasha countered as she gestured at the chariots racing above them. Maybe it was about just getting close enough in general, maybe it was about the alien tech, she didn't know, but there was only one way to find out.

"You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride."

"I got a ride. I could use a lift though."

"Before the lift, how about a boost first?" Olivia asked, holding up something in her hand for Natasha to see.

"As long as it's not poison, go for it," Natasha joked.

Olivia shook her head and moved to quickly prep the needle she was holding with a solution in a small capsule she had in her other hand.

"Adrenaline?" Steve guessed, recalling when she had used the same trick to help get Bucky out of the HYDRA camp.

Olivia nodded, the cap of the needle clenched in her teeth as she found a good spot to inject Natasha with it.

The woman didn't even flinch, but a few moments later they could see the adrenaline kick in. She sucked in a deep breath, "That's a hell of a boost, Liv," she muttered in thanks, before hopping in place for a moment, looking at Steve and giving him a nod that she was ready to go.

He braced himself, angling his shield towards her as she stepped back a few paces to give herself enough room, Olivia looking round to guard their backs while they did this, "Are you sure about this?" he called.

"Yeah," she shrugged, "It's gonna be fun."

Steve gave her a nod that he was ready and she took off running, racing up a fallen car and jumping off of it so she would land on the shield, Steve thrusting up to shoot her into the air where she grabbed onto a passing Chitauri chariot.

Olivia shook her head as she moved closer to Steve, watching her fly down the streets, "Is it just me, or do people in 2012 have a very different idea of what it is to have fun?"

"They're crazy," he agreed, "Give me a small bar with some light music and pool table anytime," he added with a look at her, recalling their first date, or what Bucky and Peggy had taken to teasing them was their first date.

"When this is over?" she glanced at him with a soft smile.

He chuckled, understanding it was her way of asking that they do just that, "When this is over," he agreed, before the two of them got back to dealing with the Chitauri soldiers that were slowly approaching.

~8~

Olivia spun around from where she had just knocked over a Chitauri soldier when she heard a grunt, to see Steve had been knocked down, a Chitauri pinning him with an energy rifle aimed right at him. She didn't stop to think what she was doing as she grabbed a rock from right beside her, for there was more than enough rubble from a destruction going on everywhere, and hurled it at the Chitauri. It struck right in the middle of its back, causing it to let out a roar and turn to snarl at her. But it was all the distraction Steve needed to break the soldier's leg and get it down on the ground. He quickly got to his feet, picking up his shield from where it had fallen, and nodded his thanks to Olivia when they both got a call over the comm..

"Major," Barton reported, "Captain, the bank on 42nd past Madison, they caught a lot of civilians there."

They glanced at each other and Olivia replied, "We'll handle it."

They were going to go together, of course they were, there was no way this played out with only one of them going. If Steve went, it would mean leaving Olivia on the street to deal with the soldiers and he would never do that. But if Olivia went, it would mean not only the same thing but also her facing whatever Chitauri might be in the bank. The fact that there were civilians caught there could mean that they might be injured. The Chitauri were not gentle creatures in their attack, they meant to cause harm. If they both went, Steve could deal with the soldiers while she saw to the civilians.

They ran down the street, heading straight for the bank. The closer they got, the more they could hear the civilians inside, but even worse they could hear something charging within, and that made them even more nervous. As soon as they were close enough to see inside the bank they made sure they took stock of the situation. There were dozens of citizens crouched together, tense and scared, while three Chitauri soldiers aimed their guns at the humans to keep them in line. One of them was crouched down next to something that looked like a bomb, it was the thing that was making the charging noise.

"Ready?" Steve called as they continued running, lifting his shield and heading straight for one of the windows.

"I knew I should have stopped at the loo!" she shouted back to him, making him laugh right as he lifted his shield, crashing through the window, immediately throwing his shield at the one working on the bomb. Olivia followed, jumping in right after as he went for the two remaining soldiers who turned their weapons to him.

Steve ducked behind a desk and kicked it at the two soldiers, Olivia slid onto her knees under the Chitauri fire, reaching the civilians and quickly looking around to see if any of them were injured. Some were bruised, some had scrapes, but they all appeared relatively fine if just quite scared.

"Is anyone hurt?' she asked them, and a few gave her odd looks for how she could be focused on them while Captain America was jumping over a desk and had head-locked a soldier while backhanding another one over a railing, "Any injuries?" she repeated to make sure that no one had actually been hurt too.

No one appeared to raise their hand or voice their concerns about it, so she looked over her shoulder to see Steve facing one soldier, the other two down for the count, and back to the people, "Right then, out, come on," she stood, putting herself in the middle of them and the path to the door, her back to the fight going on behind her for more cover, gesturing them to run and they quickly began to move for the doors, evacuating the building while Steve kept the soldiers busy, "Go! Go!"

She turned when she heard a grunt, to see another Chitauri soldier had gotten up and managed to attack Steve from behind, ripping off his helmet. She looked over, hearing the bomb beeping faster and faster and rushed over, looking at her batons. Well, if ever there was a way to determine whether or not the force field actually worked it would be now. She quickly set them on the ground, placing the batons exactly like Natasha had instructed, standing up with the rounded ends on the ground. She looked back when she heard a thump, to see Steve had flipped over one of the soldiers, and turned back to the batons, hitting the buttons and activating the force field at the bomb began to beep even faster.

Steve grabbed his shield, using it to slam into another Chitauri, sending it flying into a wall as he reached out to grab Olivia, pulling her back and crouching them both down behind his shield as the bomb went off...

Steve looked up a moment later, when the bomb engaged, yet he and Olivia were still there and not blown through a wall. He turned to where her batons were set, watching as the bomb went off _within_ a force field, but didn't expand past it. They stared, waiting until the fire went down inside the field before standing.

"Definitely looking forward to that full report," Steve murmured, very impressed with what the batons could do, and also quite surprised that it had that feature on it, not entirely sure what it even was but grateful for it. Seeing that energy holding up against a bomb, if Olivia ever had to use it, now he knew she'd be safe.

Olivia gave a small laugh, turning with his helmet in her hand that she had grabbed from the floor when she stood, placing it back on his head, "I'll be very thorough," she promised teasingly, before moving to get her batons.

Steve chuckled, holding out a hand to her as the two of them hurried back out of the bank, taking a moment to look at the civilians who were being treated by the arrival of policemen and an ambulance, apparently having gotten the report of the holdup in the bank as well. They could see the waitress who had attended to them earlier looking at them with a grateful expression. They nodded at her, before turning to run back into the city.

The Chitauri still had to be dealt with.

~8~

Thor had joined Steve and Olivia on the ground, the three of them battling even more Chitauri soldiers. Steve threw his shield while Thor threw his hammer, using them to take down a soldier or two. Steve turned around, seeing Thor catching the hammer, only to see an energy blast from a Chitauri coming straight at him, his shield a few feet away. He braced himself for the hit, but Olivia quickly rushed in front of him, bringing her batons together in front of her and triggering the force field, absorbing the energy instead as Thor swung his hammer at a car, sending it flying and crashing into a massive amount Chitauri soldiers.

Steve quickly pressed a kiss to the back of Olivia's head in thanks, before turning and picking up his shield.

"You ready for another bout?" Thor grinned as he turned to the two of them.

"What?" Steve joked, "You gettin' sleepy?"

"I can close it!" Natasha suddenly shouted through the comm. system, "Can anybody hear me? I can shut the portal down!"

"Do it!" Olivia ordered quickly.

"No, wait!" Tony cut in.

"Stark, these things are still coming!" Steve told him, unable to see Iron Man flying anywhere in the area.

"I got a nuke coming in!"

"What?!" Olivia gaped, looking at Steve who appeared equally as stunned.

From what they knew of bombs like that, they needed government clearance, authorization of the highest sort to be launched. Which meant someone very high up was willing to launch a missile at Stark Tower and right over New York. And that was with them not even sure it would destroy the portal! The shock wave from it detonating alone would be sure to destroy so many things in the area, homes, schools, hospitals, it would kill people!

"It's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it."

The three of them looked up, knowing exactly what Tony meant, to see a stream of smoke flying across the sky, clearly Tony pushing the missile higher and higher towards the portal.

"Stark, you know that's a one-way trip?" Steve called out, Olivia watching with her hands over her mouth, her batons having fallen to the ground at the sight of what Tony was doing.

Tony didn't answer, they could only watch as the missile went higher and higher, gaining speed, until it went straight through the portal with Tony, the comms. going to static. They looked around when the Chitauri soldiers suddenly gave pained cries and began to shake, looking like they were convulsing, before they just dropped, falling everywhere and not getting up.

"Liv..." Steve turned to Olivia, knowing she needed to give the order, they could see the nuke had gone off within the portal, the blast was heading straight for it once more. If it made it through the portal it could destroy some of the city.

Olivia blinked rapidly, not wanting to say it, wanting to give Tony a chance to come back through portal first, but she understood the severity of it, she understood what a weapon like that could do to the innocent people in the city, the destruction it could cause. She hoped Howard and Tony would forgive her, "Close it."

A moment later the Tesseract was turned off, the beam that was holding portal open vanished and it began to ripple as it shut. They kept their eyes trained to the sky, watching with baited breath as the last of the portal closed, just as a small figure fell out of it, sparkling in red and gold.

Tony!

"Son of a gun!" Steve breathed, before grinning and reaching out to hug Olivia tightly as she let out a relieved noise of her own.

"Something's wrong..." Olivia said a moment later, watching Tony from over Steve's shoulder. He was falling and falling and not using any of his rockets to stabilize himself.

"He's not slowing down," Thor realized, starting to swing his hammer around, ready to fly up and catch him, when the Hulk, out of nowhere, jumped off a building, launching himself at Tony. He managed to grab Tony out of midair and use the buildings he smashed into to slide down to the ground where he placed Tony. The three of them ran over to Tony's side, Thor ripping his helmet off, the man not moving.

Olivia quickly began to assess the situation, feeling for his pulse, checking for his breathing. She had just started to pinch his nose and was about to administer mouth-to-mouth, when the Hulk roared in fury, which seemed to jump start Tony.

"What the hell?" he gasped out, jolting awake, "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me?" he glanced up, catching sight of Olivia, "Please tell me you didn't kiss me," he grimaced.

Steve opened his mouth to ask him what was wrong with Olivia kissing him, when the words registered in his head, and he realized, well, he didn't want her to kiss anyone but him so it was a good thing she didn't 'kiss' Tony, so instead he said, "We won."

"Alright," he nodded, "Hey. Alright," he added a second time, more to Olivia, who was just smiling at him with tears in her eyes, meaning more than just the situation was alright but that HE was alright too, "Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."

Thor looked up at Stark Tower, "We're not finished yet."

Tony sighed, "Shawarma after?"

Olivia sniffled, SO happy he was alright, "Shawarma after."

~8~

The team gathered, standing at the ready in the penthouse of Stark Tower, watching as Loki came to from where he been left in a bit of a crater on the floor. From what the others said the Hulk had beaten him quite badly, enough to knock him out for the rest of the battle. He crawled to a small stair, wincing, with bruises and cuts everywhere, taking a breath or two before he turned his head to see them standing there.

His gaze flickered between them all before it rested on Tony, "If it's all the same to you. I'll have that drink."

Natasha, who was holding the scepter, shook her head at him but glanced at Olivia, "Please tell me you don't want to treat him," she spoke, when Loki winced, clearly in pain and injured. For everything Olivia had said earlier about why she didn't want to fight, about her role in the war, she got the feeling the woman would be willing to treat anyone who was injured, even if it was an enemy.

Olivia looked at Loki for a moment, unable to help but think about watching him stab Phil through the chest, and looked back at the woman, "He's not of Earth," Olivia stated, "I only promised to treat humans."

Natasha smirked at that, especially when Olivia turned on her heel and looked at Thor who had a small cut above his eyebrow and began to fuss over him, telling him to sit down so she could clean his wound.

It made sense, Thor had fought to save Earth, that was more than enough to make him an honorary human.

~8~

A few weeks later the Avengers, as Tony had called them, a fitting title for the group, gathered together at Central Park to witness Thor taking Loki back to Asgard. The trickster God was handcuffed and even muzzled to make sure he wouldn't be a threat to anyone. Thor shook hands with everyone on the team, though he gave Olivia a hug, much to the amusement of the team when Steve gave a mock-annoyed look to him for it. Tony had the Tesseract with him, Bruce giving it to Thor, enclosed in a glass tube for safety. The two Asgardians grabbed either end of the case, using the energy from it to trigger some sort of portal of their own, using it to take them home. Olivia stood beside Steve, watching the goings-on, watching as Barton and Natasha got into the back of a SHIELD car, racing off, Bruce moving to get in the passenger seat of a sports car Tony had been driving. She and Steve were waiting near his motorcycle, when she stepped away, calling out to Tony before he could get into his car.

"Tony," she approached him, "Could I talk to you for a moment?"

Tony glanced at a watch on his wrist, before smiling at her, not having looked long enough to actually get the time, "I can spare a minute."

Olivia nodded to the side just slightly, stepping off with Tony following to give them a little space to talk.

"I just wanted to apologize," she began.

"Apologize?" Tony frowned at that, "What do _you_ have to apologize about?"

"I haven't been fair to you."

"Um…is this some weird 1940s reverse psychology thing?"

"What?"

"I'm pretty sure _I'm_ the one that hasn't been fair to you, not the other way around."

"Maybe not outwardly, but in here," she tapped her temple, "I haven't given you the chance you deserved."

Tony sighed, "Me neither," he could admit after everything, "And, I guess I'm sorry about that too. It was just…hard, seeing you and Boy Wonder over there."

"I gathered as much," Olivia teased gently, he truly hadn't seemed pleased with being around Steve at first.

"It really was more him than you," he continued, sounding as though he were trying to make her feel better about his own feelings.

"Tony…"

"No, look," he cut in gently with a long breath, "It's just…if we're doing this, if we're apologizing and stuff, I think we need to know what and why we're apologizing about. Right?" Olivia nodded, "It's just…growing up, dad didn't shut up about the two of you and for the longest time I thought…" he shook his head, "I thought you guys were the thing he was proudest of creating, that you were his pride and joy. Or, well, the Cap was."

"Steve?" Olivia's face scrunched, trying to follow Tony's small speech.

"Dad never stopped trying to find you guys," Tony told her, "But, when the talked about it, it was like…like he expected to find _Rogers_."

It took Olivia a moment to realize, "He thought the crash killed me but not Steve."

"You were the more ill one, you didn't have as much tolerance with bodily trauma, you didn't exercise your strength or endurance as much," Tony shrugged for all the reasons he'd heard Howard talk over the years about it, "You were a woman," he held up his hands in innocence at that, showing it was Howard's thought not his own, "He thought he'd find Rogers, so you…you were just like a fond memory. But dad never gave up, he was so obsessed with finding him, it was like nothing and no one else mattered, not even me."

"I'm sure that's not true," Olivia tried to reassure him.

"He um, he left a message for me, that…that _I_ was the greatest thing he'd ever created. And it helped, but just…seeing you both, it was like…"

"All those poor feelings just came back," Olivia finished, now understanding Tony's reaction to her and Steve.

She didn't have to imagine what it was like to grow up thinking you weren't good enough. She and Steve had both gone through it, had had people on all sides telling them they weren't enough. Steve had had his bullies, Colonels in the army, all those people pushing him down. She had had herself, her illnesses, all the people she'd encountered in the war that felt she couldn't do it because she was a woman. But it had to be worse for Tony, for those feelings to come from his own father.

He resented her and Steve, Steve more than her, because they represented those feelings. They were the people he thought his father was most proud of, the ones he cared more about than his own son. He'd lashed out more at Steve, wanting to prove the man wasn't that special, so he could prove his father wrong, so he could _know_ there wasn't anything THAT important about him that he was worth the attention over Howard's own son. He'd lashed out a little at her, not quite as much, because Howard hadn't focused so much on finding her again, but just remembered her fondly. She was a story, Steve was a reality to Tony.

"Speaking of Howard," Olivia began after a moment, "That's what I wanted to apologize about. I…I saw the files that he had passed, and the files that he had a son and I…I wanted to meet you. I started wondering what you were like, whether you took after your mother or father. And, when I met you, I…well, I seemed to have compared you to your father quite a bit. And that wasn't fair to you. I shouldn't have been looking for Howard in you, I should have been getting to know YOU right from the start. And I'm sorry for that."

"Its fine," he tried to wave it off, but Olivia reached out to take his hand with her right one.

"It's really _not_ ," she insisted, "You are a man _worth_ getting to know, Tony. Because once I realized what I'd been doing, the things I began to notice about you? You are an _incredible_ man, Tony, so strong, so brave, and SO clever. You have such a big heart. And everything you've done with your life, how you turned it around, the good you've brought to this world? Your father would be so _proud_. I know I am. I am SO proud of you, Tony."

Tony made the softest of sniffles, looking away as he blinked quickly, though Olivia could see the beginnings of tears in his eyes.

"Thanks Aunt Liv," he mumbled, before closing his eyes and shaking his head, taking a deep breath, "I mean…Olivia."

Olivia squeezed his hand a moment, waiting till he opened his eyes again, "If you promise not to tease me about my name…" she trailed off, leaving him to work out what she was implying.

Tony blinked at her, "…ME?"

She laughed a bit, "Take that Howard, right?"

Tony chuckled...and pulled her to him by the hand she was holding, hugging her tightly, "I promise, no teasing about _your name_."

She mock-groaned, "Why do I get the feeling I've just opened a can of worms?"

"Oh, because you have," Tony assured her, pulling back to grin at her widely, "But thank you, Liv."

She gave him a nod, rolling her eyes when he lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles when a throat cleared behind her and Steve spoke, "Should I be worried?"

Olivia smiled as she turned to him, "Never."

"Just keep in mind, still not afraid to hit an old man, so if I ever have to defend her honor…" Tony warned him, though there was a joke in his voice, "She's practically family after all."

Steve shook his head at Tony and held out a hand to Olivia as she stepped to his side, the two of them waving at Tony as he saluted them before getting in his car and driving off.

Steve wrapped his arm around Olivia's waist, the two of them just taking a moment to enjoy the peace and solitude of the park, the bright day, and the knowledge that they had helped save the Earth once more. Olivia turned to smile up at him, resting her chin on his shoulder. He leaned in, giving her a quick kiss, and turning slightly so that both his arms were around her waist, her own moving up to drape over his shoulders.

"You may be proud of Tony," Steve spoke, and Olivia rolled her eyes playfully, knowing that Steve hadn't been eavesdropping, she just hadn't walked far enough away with Tony for him not to naturally be able to hear her words, "But I'm really proud of _you_."

"I didn't do much this time," she tried to shrug off his praise, "This wasn't like the 107th, not many people were injured that I could get to or that I knew about. I mostly just whacked aliens in the head with a stick."

"They were really good whacks," he teased, smiling at her, "But, being serious, helping people doesn't always mean just treating their wounds," he spoke gently, "Sometimes it means keeping them from getting injured...Like what you did in the bank, with your sticks..."

"Batons," she murmured, flush on her cheeks at what he was saying, she had never been good at taking compliments.

"You stopped a bomb, you stopped me from getting blasted, you managed to protect, but also treat the injured. You know I would never ever pressure you to take up a weapon," he added, "I just want you to be safe, whether that means I protect you or you learn a way to protect yourself, it doesn't matter to me as long as you're safe. Because if I ever lost you, Liv..."

She nodded, knowing that he wouldn't want to finish that thought, he wouldn't even want to consider it, "The feeling's mutual," she told him, "And I'm very grateful, to Natasha and Maria and Phil, for the batons. I've been looking at weapons as things that cause destruction for so long, even just these," she let her hands slide down from his shoulders to rest on his chest, tapping lightly so he knew she meant her hands, "Can destroy things. You and I can hurt people a lot easier than other people can. I always felt like weapons were things that, if i I did use, then the blood would just be on my hands even more," she gave him an apologetic look, knowing he viewed weapons differently than she did, and trying to tell him with her eyes that she wasn't saying he had blood on his hands. He nodded, understanding that her perspectives and perceptions were different and that she didn't see him as being a monster or anything like that just because he had used weapons in the past, "I don't know if I'll keep using them, the batons. I doubt many of our enemies in the future are going to be aliens. I really don't like hurting people."

Steve nodded, completely understanding how she felt. They had talked about this during the war, the nights where the Commandos were all sleeping but they couldn't manage it and they would stay up and look at the stars and talk. He knew how she felt about weapons in general, he knew how she felt about hurting people, about things that could injure or destroy or kill.

"We can practice," he offered, moving his hands from her waist to her own resting on his chest, "I didn't wake up from the experiment with a shield on my arm, I learned how to use it. I'm not saying use them, that's up to you if you want to use them or not, I'm just saying...maybe practice with them. Give them a chance. See how they work for you because they definitely seemed to work against the Chitauri."

"They certainly did," she could admit to that. She considered what he said for a moment or two, absently tapping her fingers on his chest before she looked up at him and gave him a small smile, "I'll try them," she promised.

"And, for the record," he squeezed her hands lightly, pulling them off of his chest to bring them up to his mouth and kiss her knuckles, "These are too perfect ever be stained red."

She shook her head at him, at how sweet he was, before she lowered their hands, still keeping them joined, "You know, I believe I remember someone promising music and a pool table..."

Steve chuckled at that, grinning widely, "Right this way, " he gestured over at his motorcycle, dropping one of her hands and walking over there with their arms swinging between them. He offered her a helmet to put on as the two of them got on the motorcycle and took off for their date.

To be continued...in...Give Me Liberty!

A/N: SO sorry this wasn't up yesterday :( I talk about it more in my Intercession story, but I went on a job interview and ended up with a splitting headache after and it was hard to look at a computer screen. I just barely managed to get my DW story posted before the end of the day and hadn't even begun to look at this one :( But at least it's up now! :D

Before we talk about the chapter, announcing the winner of the poll! The official pairing name for Steve and Olivia is...Stevia! :D It was a VERY close vote, I think it literally won by a single vote ;) I found it a bit ironic that ended up being the winning name since Stevia is a natural sweetener and sugar substitute and Steve and Olivia are so sweet together lol. I think I need to up my fluff game so they live up to their name ;) ;)

We've now finished the Avengers! :D And we've seen Olivia take her first steps towards possibly using a weapon and learning to fight ;) We'll have to wait till the Winter Soldier to see if she sticks with the batons or not. But Loki is defeated as are the Chitauri :) I hope you liked the moments between Tony and Olivia and then her and Steve :)

I really wanted to touch on Tony's feelings regarding Steve and Olivia and his father. To him, Steve was the one he reacted to more because his father thought he'd find Steve, that, somehow, he survived the crash. But he didn't think Olivia had. So the stories were more fond remembrance for Olivia, but more realistic possibility for Steve. I also felt that, given how Steve and the Commandos used more weapons, Howard would go on to have more contact/interaction with Steve than Olivia in the end. To Tony, it was more 'Steve, Steve, Steve, oh and Olivia too' from his father. He's not sure how to react to her, but they both apologize for things and I think it'll be the start of a good friendship. We still have yet to see what nicknames Tony might come up with for her, or if he'll stick with just 'Liv' since it was a big thing to him...and what he's going to tease her about if not her name, SO many options ;)

As for the title of the next story. Give Me Liberty (or Give Me Death), I felt it was fitting with Bucky being controlled, all his freewill taken. Liberty is defined as 'being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views' which I felt was certainly HYDRA oppressing everything Bucky was and how he deserved liberty :( Also how Steve was willing to let Bucky kill him because he couldn't kill/hurt Bucky :(

In about a week I'll be posting a Star Trek story for my OC Cora, and once she's finished, we'll be back to Steve, Olivia, and the Winter Soldier. So probably some time around the end of August for Olivia ;)

And, just to end...I really have to say thank you guys SO much! Really, I give each and every reader/reviewer/favoriter/follower/ko-fi giver/anythinger a virtual hug because you guys are amazing :) I write for all of you guys and I'm just so touched that you all liked the story and am truly thankful that you're enjoying Olivia :) I'll do my very best to keep it up in the future, because you guys most definitely deserve it. I love you all :')

Some notes on reviews...

You never know, it could be nabbed from Wakanda...we'll have to wait and see ;)


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